If you are my regular reader and a follower on my Instagram account, by now you would know that I make appam every week. I grind both the Idli/Dosa batter and Appam batter on the weekend and use it for the whole week. The appam batter recipe that I shared earlier in the blog is the one I follow and it doesn't disappoint me. However, I always wanted to share the Kerala style appam with yeast. Though this is almost similar to mine, the addition of yeast makes a huge difference and it is fuss-free. I have another version of this palappam with cooked rice porridge(more details in notes). Please check out my Kallappam and Vattayappam recipe if you are interested in Kerala style appams.
Ingredients:Raw Rice - 2 Cups
Cooked Rice(Sadham/Choru) - a big handful (~1 cup)
Grated Coconut - 1 Cup
Salt - as required
For the Yeast preparation:
Yeast - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1 tblsp
Water - 1/4 Cup
Method:
1. Wash and soak the rice for 4 to 5 hours. Then drain the water and transfer it to a blender. Roughly grind it once. Now, along with this add the cooked rice and the grated coconut.
3. Mix the yeast with the ground batter. Transfer it to a large container and allow it to ferment for 8 hours.
2. Grind everything to a very smooth batter by adding little water. The consistency of the batter should not be watery, so just add the required water for grinding. To activate the yeast, mix the yeast, sugar and warm water in a bowl. Allow it to rest for 5 to 10 mins. You can see froth/tiny bubbles on the top and the yeast is ready to be used.
4. The fermented batter will be doubled in size and it will be frothy. Add required salt and mix everything really well. If the batter is too thick, dilute it with little water or coconut milk. The batter should be in pouring consistency.
5. Now heat the iron or non-stick appam pan. Pour a ladle full of batter in the centre of the pan. By holding the sides of the pan, swirl the pan such that the batter spreads outwards. The remaining batter will be in the middle. Hence the appam is thick in the middle and lacy towards the end. Cover it with the lid and cook it for 2 minutes. Now the appam is ready. Remove it from the pan and place it in the serving plate.
Palappam goes well with many gravies like chicken curry, mutton curry, egg curry, kondakadala curry and so on. You can also serve it with coconut milk and sugar too.
- The ground batter should not be watery, just add the needed water while grinding. This helps in the proper fermentation. You can dilute it as needed while making the appam. If you want the crispy brown laced edge, then dilute the batter a little more with water. The watery batter forms the crispy laces beautifully when we spread it. Also, cover and cook until it turns brown. I like soft appam's so made it this way.
- I used ponni raw rice for making this appam. You can very well use sona masuri rice too.
- While grinding the batter you can replace the grated coconut with 1/2 cup of thick coconut milk as well.
- Instant yeast, active dry yeast or fresh yeast can be used. Make sure to use good quality fresh yeast.
- You can use Kallu(toddy) to ferment this appam. If you get that, then you can completely skip the yeast and add 1/2 cup of toddy.
- Alternatively, we can make kallu using coconut water or karikku(Tender coconut) water. Take a cup of coconut water and mix a tablespoon of sugar in it. Leave it undisturbed for 24 hours. Then this coconut wine can be used for fermentation by replacing the yeast.
- Since it is winter for us it took 8 hours to ferment. I just left it on the counter. If it is very cold, you can leave it in the oven with the oven light on. But during summer it only takes 4 to 5 hours.
- You can replace the cooked rice with rice porridge too. To make the rice porridge, take 2 tblsp of the ground batter(raw rice + coconut) and mix it with 1/3 cup of water. Now, cook it in low flame until it is cooked and reach the gum-like consistency. Allow it to cool completely and add it to the batter while adding the yeast mixture. To know more about this process, please check my Vattayappam post.
Happy's Cook - Divya
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