Palappam (made of soaked raw rice, coconut milk and yeast)

Palappam (made of soaked raw rice, yeast, coconut milk and no added kappi kaachiyath)

Palappam is a traditional breakfast dish in Kerala cuisine, goes well with stew, non vegetarian  gravy dishes , korma …

Makes-  12 - 14

Ingredients

For the Yeast solution:

1 teaspoon  active dry yeast (1 1/2 teaspoon for cold climate / winter season)

Warm water -1/4 cup / 3 tablespoon

Sugar – 2 teaspoon

 If the yeast is not fermenting as described / also shown in the picture – never go any further. The  batter  won’t rise. Get a new pack of yeast and start all over again.

Mix sugar and warm water. Add yeast and keep aside for 10-15 minutes or until a froth appears on the surface / yeast granules are dissolved and well risen. Always use fresh yeast. Yeast solution will be double in size after 20 minutes. Yeast is the main ingredient to make  soft and spongy palappam.

Please use same measuring cup to measure rice and coconut milk.

2 cups raw Rice ( pachari ) (Please measure in Indian standard measuring cup of 200 ml / 8 oz capacity)

200 ml medium thick coconut milk, homemade or instant (or mix 100 ml thick and 100 ml thin coconut milk. If using instant coconut milk like Maggi, please follow packet instructions carefully to make thick and thin coconut milk)

4 tablespoon leftover cooked and cooled

1 cup water / 200 ml Water

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

To prepare Appam batter:

Soak raw  rice in water for 3 hours. Drain out water. Grind soaked raw rice and  cooked rice (2 tablespoon cooked rice at a time) together in a mixer in 2 batches.  Batter should not be too watery. You can add 1/4 cup water  (3/4th level of rice)  while grinding.

Transfer this batter into another big vessel and mix  with yeast solution, medium thick coconut milk, salt and sugar. Stir the batter nicely with a thick ladle.  Cover and keep aside to ferment  for 6 - 8 hours or overnight. Batter should be of pouring consistency.  Palappam batter will be double in size after fermenting. Finally adjust with 1/2 cup water if required (batter should be thinner than dosa batter). Do not refrigerate appam batter during fermenting. Appachatti is used to make Appam. If there’s shortage of Appachatty or Hopper pan, use dosa pan (normal tawa) to make flat appam.

Appa chatty (Hopper pan) - Hopper pan is available at all leading steel utensil show room / supermarkets in India and also online stores. Price Rs 835 for Hawkins brand and Rs 790 for Prestige Omega.

Please visit this link for more photos and another recipe of appam.

1, Heat non stick appachatty (or normal frying pan / dosa tawa - If using dosa tawa, do not make more circles)

2, Grease the appachatty with little oil.

3, Pour 2 ladleful (1 1/2 to 2 ladleful) of appam batter to the appachatty.

4, Lift the pan ( from the stove ) and slightly twist around to spread the batter in the pan to make circular shape .

5, Close appachatty with a lid and cook on low heat till the edges are golden brown. When the Appam is ready, the edges resemble crisp lace and centre soft . Traditionally this is eaten with Stew/ chicken curry / egg roast/ coconut milk/ sugar.