Makes: 12-15 Appams
Ingredients for Appam :
- Raw Rice – 1½ cups, soaked for 5 hours
- Cooked Rice – ½ cup
- Coconut Water – 1 cup
- Curd – 2 tablespoons
- Salt to taste
- Rawa/ Semolina paste – 1 tablespoon
- Sugar – 2 tablespoon (feel free to vary this or skip it entirely, my family likes it semi sweet)
Ingredients for the Stew:
- Coconut oil – 1 tbsp
- Onion/ Shallots – 1 chopped tiny/ 6-8 sliced
- Curry leaf – 1 sprig
- Cinnamon – 1 large piece
- Star anise – 1 small
- Green Cardamom – 5
- Cloves – 5
- Whole black pepper – 1 tsp
- Potato – 1 large, cut into ½” cubes
- Fresh green peas – ½-¾ cup
- French Beans – 15 , cut into ½” bits
- Carrots – 2 medium sized , sliced into rounds not too thin
- Spicy Green Chilies – 4, slit length ways
- Ginger Garlic paste – 2 tablespoons
- Thick Coconut Milk – 5 cups (Good thick coconut milk makes a load of difference to the stew)
Method for Appam:
- Grind together the raw rice, cooked rice, coconut water, curd, salt to a smooth batter. You can add a little water if the batter needs help.
- Using a whisk mix the semolina paste into the ground batter, ensuring that there are no lumps, and leave it to ferment overnight or for 8 -10 hours, depending on the weather in your area.
- To make the Appam: Heat an appam pan with a well-fitting lid, like the one below . If it is a non-stick pan, rub a little ghee all over the inner surface.
- Keeping the heat at minimum, add a ladle full of fermented batter and start swirling the batter around the pan. You should get a lacey edge and a thick centre. Drizzle a few drops of ghee on the top of the appam. Cover and cook on minimum heat until the top looks done. Take off the lid, continue cooking on medium flame for a few more minutes until the edges appear golden brown and crispy.
Method for the Stew:
- Heat the coconut oil in a deep dish. To the hot oil add the onions and curry leaf sprig. Fry until the onion just turns translucent.
- Next add in the whole spices (careful not to burn them), followed by the ginger garlic paste. Mix well.
- Add in the vegetables beginning with potato, follow the order the vegetables are listed in.
- Mix everything up really well and add in the coconut milk.
- Bring the stew to a boil, turn off heat once all the vegetables are done.
Notes:
- An appam pan is shallow in comparison to a kadhai. I’ve made Appams in a kadhai too with decent results.
- Make sure you refrigerate any left over batter to avoid letting it go sour.
- Keep the batter out for an hour and a half so that it comes back to room temperature before using it again to make more appams.