Appam/Palappam/Velleppam

Appam/Velleppam is one of the most popular breakfast recipes of Kerala. These healthy and easy to make appams have a fluffy , thick centre with crispy sides. It can be served with a lot of combination dishes like vegetable stew, chicken stew, fish molly,egg roast, kadala curry or even with sweetened coconut milk(my favourite ).

The main ingredients of appam are rice and coconut. In Kerala itself, a number of different methods are there to prepare appam/velleppam. Here I am sharing the simplest way !!!

INGREDIENTS:-

Raw Rice                                              - 2 cups

Grated Coconut                                  - 1 or 2 cups

Boiled rice (if you have some boiled rice leftovers in your fridge, that is enough)                                           - ½ cup

Baking Soda                                       - ½ tsp
Sugar                                                    - 1 tsp
Salt                                                        - to taste

Method:-

·         Soak the raw rice overnight or for at least 5-6 hrs in water. Wash and drain the rice.

·         Mix the raw rice with grated coconut and boiled rice in a large bowl.

      Grind in a mixer grinder. Each time, add water just to cover .

 Consistency of the batter is a little bit thicker than that of pancake/ dosa.

·         Pour the batter into a stainless steel vessel, add sugar and 1/4 tsp of baking soda .
      Close with a lid and keep overnight in the room temperature. It will become double in quantity after fermentation. So, use a double size vessel for fermenting the batter.

·         Add salt and the rest 1/4 tsp of baking soda to the batter just 5 min before preparation.

·         Heat a non stick appam pan, pour 2 -3 drops of oil and grease the pan all over using a tissue paper.

·         Pour a ladle full of batter in the centre of pan, round it in the clock wise direction to get a circular shape and close with a lid until cooked. 

        Or else, you can pour the batter into an appam pan and rotate using its handle to get a circular shape.

·         The edges will start leaving from the pan once it is done, use a flat spatula to take the appam from the pan and place it in a serving plate.

·         Then spread a spoon dipped in oil all over the appam to avoid sticking together. Do the same with every cooked appams.

·         Prepare appams with the rest of the batter.

·         Serve with vegetable stew, egg roast , channa masala or fish molly etc.