For those who have visited Kerala, Appam, the typical Kerala breakfast dish may be the one thing they miss the most.
My personal experience with appam started many years ago (I was not cooking then, just savouring them very regularly!), neither did I know that appam required careful preparation nor did I have any idea of the number of varieties of appam back then.
It took many attempts to understand the nuances of preparing a good appam. The secret is to get a spongy center and a crisp outer rim. Coming to varieties of the dish, it will be interesting to know that there are at least four varieties of appams.
Vellayappam is made by grinding rice and grated coconut together (coconut milk is not used). Regular appam that most of us are familiar with is made by grinding rice and urad dal, and is left to ferment overnight.
All the three types of appam mentioned here are prepared in an appam chatty, where one has to pour the batter and swirl the vessel, then cook to form a spongy centre and thin outer crust. It will be interesting again to note that toddy (fermented liquor from the coconut tree/palm tree) is also used in preparing some appams.
Appam, as such, is not a main dish, it has to be accompanied with vegetable or chicken stews; the classic accompaniment, however, has to be kadala curry (made with black channa). Such appams are called Kallappam. If a superstar is someone with the largest fan following, then appam must surely be Kerala’s culinary superstar.
Recipes
APPAM
Number of portions: 15
Ingredients
150 gm urad dal
20 gm sugar
10 gm salt
5 gm methi seeds
1 kg rice (Half-raw rice, half-boiled rice)
Method
Soak rice and urad dal overnight for at least four-five hours. Grind both into a smooth paste with appropriate water. Season with salt. Rest this mixture for two hours. Pour a ladle of the mixture on a moderately heated appam kadai over low flame.
Work around to spread evenly on the entire surface of the pan. Remove with a bamboo skewer to get a crispy thin pan cake in the sides and fluffy in the middle.
NOTE: Little Sugar is mixed before final preparation to give a good colour for outer rim.
Vegetable stew
Ingredients
200 gm carrot
150 gm beans
100 gm cauliflower
50 gm onion
50 ml refined Sunflower oil
15 gm ginger
12 black peppercorn
8 curry leaves
5 gm fennel seeds
4 cloves
2 slit green chillies
2 cups coconut milk
1 cinnamon stick
Salt to taste
1 bay leaf
Method
In a heavy bottom pan, heat oil, add fennel, cinnamon stick, bay leaf and green chillies. Add onions, curry leaves and saute without allowing it to change its colour. Add ginger, peppercorn, cloves and saute for one-two minutes.
Add cut vegetables and continue cooking over a low flame without changing colour for two-three minutes. Mix half of the coconut milk with equal quantity of water and add to the cooking pot. Cook for a while and add remaining coconut milk. Boil and add coconut oil. Season with salt and remove from flame.
The writer is the executive chef at Novotel hotel
