Vattayappam (വട്ടയപ്പം)

Vattayappam (വട്ടയപ്പം)

It has been a while since I posted something here. Let me come back from my break with a delicious snack item, which is also an all time favorite of mine. Vattayappam is Kerala's own fermented steamed rice cake. It is a healthy traditional tea time snack. During Easter season, the christian families of Kerala prepare vattayappam along with kallappam.

In Malayalam,  'vatta' means round shaped. So vattayappam derived it's name from it's shape. It is basically rice and coconut grinded together and fermented with yeast to make it super soft and fluffy. It is a sweet snack, easy to make and doesn't take much time to prepare.

I like to make it not very sweet, but on the other hand place nuts, cherries or raisins on the top for decoration and enhanced taste. You cannot stop eating the vattayappam because the light flavor of cardamon along with the sweet and mellow rice cake melting in your mouth, the thinking brain has to surrender to the taste buds.

 

Ingredients:
Soaked raw white rice (known as pachari): 1 1/2 cups.
Freshly grated coconut:  1 1/2 cups
Cooked Rice: A handful (heaped)
Instant Yeast: 1/2 tsp.
Salt: 1/2 tsp.
Sugar: 2-3 tbsp.
Cardamon seeds: 4 to 5
Cumin seeds (jeera): A pinch
Water: As needed.
Oil to grease, preferably coconut oil.

Method of preparation:

Soak raw white rice (pachari) for about 2 hours. Use a mixer or blender to grind the rice. Add 1 cup coconut, cooked rice, and instant yeast before grinding it. Use just enough water to cover the ingredients. Be careful not to add excess water, the batter should be thick, almost as thick as the idli batter. Add the 3 tbsp of sugar and 1/2 tsp of salt. after grinding for 2 minutes approximately, add 1/2 cup coconut and cardamon seeds. Also add a pinch of cumin seeds (jeera). Grind them again for a minute. Note that you don't have to add water this time. Do not want the coconut to grind too fine either. Pour the batter into a steel or glass bowl. Keep it untouched for 2 hours. See if it has risen because of fermentation.


Now take a round cake  pan, grease it with a few drops of coconut oil. Pour batter, about 3/4 full. Place it into the hot steamer. Keep the steamer open until the steam starts to come. Close the steamer and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes. After that open the steamer and decorate the top of vattayappam with nuts, raisins or cherries as you may like. etc. Again close the steamer and continue cooking. (The reason why I do not decorate the vattayappam at the beginning is that they will go inside the  batter. So it is a good idea to wait for the vattayappam to be half cooked to do the decoration). Once it is well cooked, switch off the steamer and take the pan out. You can even insert a tooth pick to see if it is well cooked.When they are nicely cooked, the sides do come off a bit.

Cut the vattayappam with a knife. If you invert the pan, while it is still warm, invert the pan, to get the pieces out. Try it and enjoy the delicious vattayappam!!

Dry curry with sardine fish

Dry curry with sardine fish (മത്തി  തേങ്ങാ  പീര )

This item is usually known as മത്തി പീര when prepared with sardine fish or മീൻ പീര when prepared with other types of fish. A typical Kerala dish that is easy to cook and a very nice combination with rice. For this preparation, you will need any small fish such as anchovies  (Natholi  or  Chooda) or small sardines.

Fishes are are a good source of calcium. Since this preparation uses small fishes such as sardines or anchovies, we don't even need to remove the bones. So that is more calcium rich.

Fish peera is always combination of coconut, Malabar tamarind (kudampuli or Garcinia Cambodia) and fish. In some places, people also uses dry fish to prepare the same dish. Common dry fishes used for peera preparation are dry shark, mathi (dry sardines)  and ayila (mackerel). This preparation goes well with tapioca (kappa puzhukku) or rice. Some  times we can use raw mango or bilimbi (irumban puli) instead of kudampuli.

Ingredients:

1) Sardine(Mathi)     1 kg (cleaned and cut in to 2 or 3 pieces)

2) Coconut                 1 cup, grated

    Green chilly           7 no chopped well

    Small onion            8 no,cut in to 4 pieces

    Turmeric powder   1 tsp

    Salt                         as desired

    Ginger                    cut in to small pieces

    Curry leaves          1 spring

    Malabar tamarind(kudam puli)     3 or 4 pieces as needed

3) Coconut oil    2 tbsp

Method of Preparation:

Clean the sardines and cut them into 2 or 3 pieces. Mix the sardine pieces with items under (2). Take all the items in to one clay pot. Add little water and cook it well. When it is well cooked, pour 1 table spoon of coconut oil in to the cooked dish. (Instead of using all the items as is, you can moderately grind them before mixing with the fish)