Appam | Palappam is a delicious breakfast dish in God's Own Country. Palappam goes perfect with any stew or curry dish of your choice, be it vegetarian or non vegetarian. Appam or Palappam was originally introduced by Jewish settlers in Kerala. The lacey frilled appams are a culinary delight and no function is ever complete without Appam. The appam is prepared from a mixture of fermented rice batter. The ingredients should be measured in the stated quantities for an awesome appam. It should be soft and well cooked in the thick centre. You can explore a well detailed appam dish here that can be easily prepared at home.
For preparing the traditional styled dish, first mix semolina with 1 cup water and cook it on a low flame till the semolina is cooked well and reaches a thick (not too thick, a bit pouring consistency, like that of a `kurukku`) consistency.
Remove from fire and allow it to cool.
Wash rice 3 - 4 times. Soak it at least for 1 hour.
Grind it into a fine paste by adding salt, sugar and yeast.
:- The batter should be thick like idli batter consistency.
Mix this batter with semolina paste and mix well using a spatula.
Keep the batter overnight (say 5 to 8 hours or till the batter rise) for fermentation.
Just before making palappam, grind the coconut into a very fine paste and mix it well with the batter(or you can extract the coconutmilk and mix with the batter).
:- The final batter for palappam is ready. It shouldn`t be thick and very loose but only pouring consistency.
:- Check the amount of salt and add more if needed.
Heat a nonstick appachatti and pour one big spoon of the batter, rotate the pan and close with lid.
When the steam starts coming out, open the lid and take out the appam.
:- The side border of the palappam should be of a light brown colour and crispy.
This is my version of palappam.
You can try other options also.
Option 1:- Take Ist and IInd extract of coconutmilk and grind rice using IInd extract of coconutmilk instead of water. And add Ist extract of coconutmilk just before making appam instead of coconut paste.