Appam

Kerala Style Appam (വെള്ളയപ്പം  or പാലപ്പം)

If you ask anyone from outside Kerala, what is their favorite Kerala dish, chances are that you will hear appams as the answer. Traditionally, Appams are used as a breakfast dish in Kerala. Appam with egg curry or appam with stew, be it vegetable stew or chicken stew or mutton stew, is a favorite breakfast combination.

But outside Kerala, most of the Kerala restaurants serve appams at any time of the day. You can have appams for breakfast, lunch or dinner.


Traditionally appams are made in two different varieties. Today I am going to cover what is known as vellayappam (വെള്ളയപ്പം) or paalappam (പാലപ്പം). I will describe the easiest way of preparing appams so that anyone can try it at home.

Ingredients:
Rice                    2 cups
Boiled rice          1/2 cup
Grated coconut   3/4 cup
Yeast                  1/2 tsp
Sugar                 1 tbsp
Salt                    as needed
Water                 as needed

Method of preparation: 
1) Sock the rice in water for 3 to 4 hours. Add the remaining items and grind all of them together. Add water to the dough until the dough is consistently thick, not too watery or not too thick while poring it.

2) Keep the dough overnight for fermentation. When it gets fermented, it almost doubles up in quantity. So make sure you are keeping the batter in a vessel that is big enough for the batter.

3) The shape of the appam comes from the shape of the vessel used for preparing the appams. Use a deep round bottomed pan, which is called 'appam pan'. Heat the pan on the stove. Use some oil only if it is a not non-stick pan. (I regularly use the non-stick pan, and hence do not use oil).

4) Pour a ladle full of the dough into the pan. Lift the pan, tilt and turn it in a full circle so that the dough spreads uniformly into the sides. Keep the pan back on the flame and cover it with a lid. Because of the shape of the pan, most of the dough will settle in the middle, thus leaving the sides in a lacy design and the center thick.

5) The appam will be ready in a couple of minutes. Serve it hot with your favorite side dish.

Notes: 

1. Traditionally appams are fermented with kallu (toddy - the alcoholic drink from coconut trees or palm trees). In this recipe I have used yeast, since toddy is not widely available. However the appams fermented with toddy has a special taste.
2. Half cup of boiled rice is added to the rice before grinding it, this will help the appams to be softer. However, if the amount of boiled rice is more, chances are that the appams will turn more sticky.
3. Keep the batter overnight for fermentation. Now if the weather is too cold, it might be a good idea to use look-warm water to prepare the batter.
4. You can add coconut water instead of normal water, that will help fermentation. And with coconut water the appams will taste better.