Vellayappam

Vellayappam – A tasty breakfast dish, goes well stew or  veg and non vegetarian gravy dishes. Recipe and shape of vellayappam may varies from place to place in Kerala.

Ingredients

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

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

2 tablespoon sago (sabudana)

3 cups water (to soak rice)

2 tablespoon leftover cooked and cooled rice

1 cup grated coconut

1/2 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds) optional

4 cloves garlic (optional)

½ teaspoon salt

To prepare Appam batter:

Wash and clean  rice and sago. Soak   raw  rice and sago (sabudana)  in 3 cups water for 5 hours. Drain out water.

 Grind soaked  raw rice – sago,  cooked rice, jeera, garlic cloves (optional) and grated coconut  together in a mixer in 3 batches.  Batter should not be too watery. One can add 1/4 cup water  (3/4th level of rice and other ingredients)  when grinding.

Transfer this batter into another vessel and mix  with it salt.  Stir the batter nicely with a thick ladle. 

Fermentation of vellayappam batter can be done in 3 different methods. That’s with yeast, Eno fruit salt and cooking soda (appamsoda). Please select either of the method.

1, With yeast (To prepare yeast solution)

1 teaspoon dry yeast

Warm water -1/4 cup (3 tablespoon / 50 ml)

Sugar – 2 teaspoon

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 with latest manufacturing date. Yeast solution will be double in size after 20 minutes. If the yeast solution is not fermenting well, get a new pacxk of yeast and start  it again).

Well fermented yeast

Mix yeast solution and  velleyappam batter. Cover and keep aside to  fermenting for 6 - 8 hours or overnight. Appam batter will be double in size after fermenting. Appam batter should be of pouring consistency. Finally adjust with little water if required. Do not refrigerate appam batter during fermenting.

2, With Eno Fruit Salt:

A sachet (4.6 g)  Eno Fruit salt (available at medical stores and supermarkets. It’s an antacid and good for digestion). Eno fruit salt is used to make Dhokla (Gujarati snack). It helps the batter to rise well.

Once the velleyappam batter is ready, cover and keep aside for 5 – 6 hours or overnight. Then mix it with a sachet of Eno fruit salt and 1 teaspoon sugar. Cover again and keep aside for half an hour. Vellayappam batter is ready now.

3, With cooking soda (appam soda):

It’s easily available @ supermarkets. Once the velleyappam batter is ready,  cover and  keep aside for  5 – 6 hours or overnight. Then mix with ½ teaspoon cooking soda and 1 teaspoon sugar. Cover again and keep aside for another half hour. Vellayappam batter is ready now.

Final procedure of vellayappam:

 Heat a  dosa tawa / griddle / pan on a medium heat and  grease  with little oil.

 Pour 1 full ladleful  of appam batter. Do not make circles (5 – inches in width  and bigger than a puri).

 Close  with a lid and cook on a medium heat till the upper side is cooked well and light golden color on underside. Do not turn other side. Gently remove from the tawa with the help of a flat spatula. It's very soft and silky in texture. Traditionally this is eaten with Stew / veg or non-vegetarian gravy dishes / egg roast ...

Onion and Garlic Stew – A delicious main dish with Appam (Hoppers) & Idiyappam (String hoppers) !!

Serves: 2 – 3

Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil

3 onions, cubed (separate each layers)

3 green chillies, slit lengthwise

1 – inch ginger, thinly sliced

12 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

6 curry leaves

300 ml Maggi coconut milk or homemade 250 ml thin coconut milk and 50 ml thick coconut milk

¾ teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Method

If using Maggi coconut milk powder, dilute 25 g coconut milk powder with 300 ml water.

Heat oil in a deep pan / karahi on a medium heat. Add onion cubes and gently fry till pink color.

Add slit green chillies, ginger, garlic  and curry leaves. Fry on a low heat until fragrant for about 3 – 4 minutes.

Now add diluted Maggi coconut milk (or homemade 250 ml thin coconut milk) and salt to taste. Cover with a lid and cook on a medium to low heat for 10 – 12 minutes or until done / onions well cooked (If using homemade coconut milk,  final stage - add 50 ml thick coconut milk, mix well and switch off the gas. No need to boil). Serve with vellayappam /appam / idiyappam ..