Appam or velleappam

Appam is a curve shaped pancake from South Indian cuisine. it is made by fermenting the batter with yeast. Appam is normally served with stews and fish curry, egg curry,mutton curry and chicken curry. It must have soft and spongy center, crisp and lacy border.

Ingredients:

Raw idly rice - 2 cup (standard measurement cup)

Freshly grated coconut - 1 1/2 cup (standard measurement cup)

Rava/Semolina - 2 tablespoon

Sugar - 5 tablespoon

Yeast - 2 teaspoon

Salt to taste

Water - 1/2 cup for dissolving yeast

Water for grinding

Directions to make:

1. Wash and soak 2 cups of raw idly rice for at least 4 to 5 hours. After 5 hours drain the water and keep it aside.

2. Dissolve 2 teaspoon of instant yeast in half cup of warm water (the water must be warm not hot) with 1 tablespoon of sugar. After 10 minutes the froth appears on the surface.

3. Mix 2 tablespoon of rava/semolina in 1 cup of water and boil it. Keep stirring till we get a porridge like consistency. After that, switch off the flame and keep it aside for cool down.

4. Blend the drained raw idly rice, grated coconut, cooked semolina or rava and yeast dissolved water together into a fine paste . The water for grinding should add only after adding the yeast dissolved water. The batter must be thin for soft appam (don't add salt at this stage because it will resist the fermentation).

5. Keep aside this batter overnight for 6 to 8 hours in a warm place for fermentation.

6. Before 1 hour for making appam add required salt and 4 tablespoon of sugar to the batter. Mix everything well.

7. Heat a non stick appachatty on low flame and pour one ladleful of appam batter to the appachatty, lift the appachatty and twist it around to spread the batter in the pan. The remaining batter will settle in middle of the chatty. In this way, we will get crisp and lacy border and soft and spongy center. That is the perfect shape and structure of appam.

8.After that, close the appachatty with a lid and wait till is perfectly done (crisp and lacy border and soft and spongy center). The flame must be on low heat otherwise the center of the appam will not cook correctly.

9. Transfer the appam from the chatty into a plate and pour another ladle of batter and repeat the same steps.