Aapam with Coconut Milk - Blog Hop

Its blog hop Wednesday again! Time really flies and blog hops makes me realise it every fortnight! My blog hop friend for this week is Roshan of Roshan's Cucina. Roshan has a very inviting and bright blog space and there were quite a lot of items under 'baking' which I wanted to try but for the lack of a proper oven in my kitchen. So, while I was browsing through her other recipes the "palappam" caught my attention.

This is something I had been wanting to make since a very long time but had not been able to make for some reason. Thanks to blog hop, today I tried it. Turned out fluffy and soft and went so well with the fresh and sweet coconut milk! My MIL used to make this too, so I borrowed some ideas from her and varied the ingredients for the batter slightly,  from Roshan's.

Ingredients:

Aapam batter:

- 1 cup raw rice
- 1 cup idli rice (boiled rice)
- 2 tbsp urad dhal
- 1 tight fistful fenugreek seeds (methi/vendhayam)


Add on to the batter:

- Salt as needed
- 4 tbsp ground coconut
- 1 tbsp sugar
- a pinch of baking soda

For Coconut Milk:

- 1 fresh coconut
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tbsp sugar

Prep time: 1 day                Cook time: 3 mins per aapam/ 10 mins for coconut milk

Source: Roshan's Cucina

Preparation:

- Soak all the ingredients under "aapam batter" above for minimum 3 hours and grind them into a smooth batter. Add salt and let it ferment for 8 to 10 hours or as required.
- Prepare the coconut milk just before you are ready to make the aapam. Grind the shredded coconut( if using frozen coconut, use 1 cup) with half cup water and filter and extract the milk and set aside. To this add the sugar and let it dissolve. Do not dilute the coconut milk.
- Prior to making the appam, grind 4 tbsp of  fresh coconut in little water and add it along with the sugar and baking soda in the batter.
- If the batter is too thick, use some coconut milk to thin it a bit.
- Heat the appam pan and pour a ladle of the batter in the center and immediately roll the pan in circular motion to spread the batter around the pan.

- Cover and cook for approx 3 minutes on low flame. The center of the appam would be thick and fluffy while the edges would be thin and crispy.

- Remove from pan and serve with the coconut milk. Can be served with vegetable stew as well.

Sending the recipe to

Blog hop wednesday event hosted by Radhika of Tickling Palates

Vendhaya (Methi) Uthappam

Let me introduce you all to this very healthy and easy to make Uthappam! This is an uthappam recipe I have grown up with and is popular only among our families. So to say around the community of 18 villages from where my ancestors originate! This variety is not so popular outside of our families, so you might not have heard of this much elsewhere!

Here I am unleashing our families secret to the world:-)! Hope you all learn to make this right and enjoy the goodness of this simple and easy food! I am saying "right" because it takes a few couple of tries before you can actually perfect the proportions. Here, I am not going to be using exact measurements but only approximate measures...

Ingredients:

- 2 cups Idli rice or boiled rice
- 1 tight fistful of methi seeds (fenugreek seeds). This will be approximately a little less than 1 tbsp
- 1 tbsp of Urad dhal
- Salt to taste

Prep time: 3 to 4 hours soaking                    Cook time: 2 to 3 mins per side
                12 to 16 hours of fermenting


Preparation:

- Soak the rice, methi seeds, urad dhal all together for 3 to 4 hours
- Grind them together into a smooth batter. If you grind them coarse, the texture of the uthappam will become hard.
- Let them ferment well for about 12 to 16 hours. Do not add salt.

Making the Uthappam:

- Take as much batter as necessary, add water and salt and bring it to a dosa batter consistency. It should not be as thick as idli batter neither too liquid.
- Pour a laddle or two of the batter on a dosa tawa and spread it into a small circle. Do not spread it thin. Uthappam is thick anytime.

- Pour a few drops of sesame oil around the edges of the uthappam and let them cook for a couple of minutes on either side.

- Healthy vendhaya uthappam tastes best with sambhar or chutney powder.

Foot notes:

- If the uthappam turns out to be soft and fluffy while making and not tough, you have got the right consistency.
- Using sesame (gingely) oil enhances its flavour. If the batter is well fermented, you will find those small holes forming on the uthappam.


This recipe is participating in:

Arisi Upma / Rice Upma

Arisi Upma or Upma made with broken rice is very common in South India. Traditionally these are made in "Vengala paanai" to get the best flavour. However, in these days, it is either made in pressure cooker or in a pan...whichever is convenient and easy on time!

Ingredients:

- 1 cup raw rice
- 1 cup finely chopped veggies (potatoes, carrots, green peas)
- 1 or 2 green chillies
- 1 or 2 red chillies
- 1 tsp each of urad dhal, channa dhal, toor dhal for seasoning
- 2 tsp of grated coconut
- Hing, mustard and curry leaves for seasoning
- 2 tsp oil
- Salt to taste


Prep time: 15 mins             Cook time: 30 mins

Preparation:

- Give the rice a pulse in the mixie or blender and break it into smaller pieces.Wash the rice, drain the water and set aside

- Cut the veggies and keep the seasoning ingredients handy

- In a non stick pan or a thick bottomed pan, heat the oil.
- Once hot, add the dhals and roast till they turn red.
- In the end, add the mustards and chillies and let the mustards crackle and chillies fry

- Now, add the veggies, salt and cook them for a couple of minutes.

- For 1 cup of rice, add 2 1/2 to 3 cups of water. Bring the water to a boil along with the veggies.
- Add the coconuts, curry leaves and hing on top when the water comes to a boil.

- Now, add the rice into the boiling water and give it a stir.

- Close with a lid and cook on low-medium heat for 20 minutes.

- Open it half way through to check if water is adequate. If you feel it could need more water, add little based on need.
- Arisi Upma is ready to eat with your favourite pickle or coconut chutney

Foot note:

- Usually the 1 cup rice and 1/4 cup toor dhal is washed and drained. Then, it is spread on a muslin cloth or a very thin cloth and left to dry for a few hours.
- This rice and dhal is given a grind in the blender and broken into small pieces before making the upma.
- If you have the "time" for it, you could try this method!

Linking the recipe to:

Love Lock with Rice event at Tomato Blues and Sweet Karam Kaapi

Mor Kuzhu / Mor Kali or Rice Doklas

Mor kuzhu or Mor Kali is a very popular snack of Tamilnadu which has been passed down through generations. This is a super simple and easy dish and is a very tasty evening snack. It may not look very appetizing but one needs to eat before deciding! When you have excess curd or buttermilk left out and you need ways to use it...then this will defenitely fit the bill:-) I call it the TN variation of Dhoklas!

There are two ways of making this..one the traditional way which involves grinding the rice batter and the other for the quickies...using store bought rice flour. Will explain both ways below. I made it the traditional way though....

Method 1: Traditional way

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup raw rice soaked for 3 hours
- 2 tbsp sabudhana / javarisi soaked for 3 hours
- 1 cup curd whisked
- 1 green chilly
- few curry leaves
- 3 to 4 sundried chillies ( cured in buttermilk) or mor millagai
- mustard for seasoning
- 2 tbsp sesame oil or other

Prep time: 3 hours                          Cook time: 15 mins

Preparation:

- Grind the soaked rice along with 1 tbsp of soaked sabudhana, green chilly and salt, adding some water.
- Make it into the consistency of idly batter. If you do not have sundried chilly then you can increase the quantity of green chilly for spice level.
- After grinding, add the batter to the whisked curd and mix well without any lumps.

Rice batter mixed with curd

- Add the remaining soaked sabudhana to this batter.
- In a non-stick pan or a thick bottomed pan, heat the oil.
- On heating, add the sundried chillies and let it fry until dark.Later add the mustard and curry leaves and let it crackle.

- Now, reduce flame to low, and slowly pour in the batter into the pan while stirring continuously.

- Keep stirring for 10 mins on low-medium heat. Do not let lumps form.

- In the end, everything will come together without sticking to the sides of the pan. Another test, wet your fingers in water and touch the cooked mix. If it does not stick to your fingers, it is time to remove from pan.

- You can scoop this on to a plate and start eating right away or....
- Pour it on to a greased plate and wait for 5 mins to let it set. Then make cubes of it like cake pieces and serve as dhoklas.

Foot note:
- Popularly this is made without the sabudhana. As I said, this is passed down through generations...and my great grandma used to add sabudhana to give it the chewy texture! I like it that way...try it and am sure you too will:-)
- All my measures are for the serving size of 2 persons


Method 2: Quicky


- All the steps are the same except grinding of the rice batter and mixing sabudhana.
- Instead of soaking and grinding the rice....use 1/2 cup rice flour and mix it in with 2 tbsp of maida in the whisked curd.
- The maida will give it the chewy texture in place of the sabudhana.
- While doing the tempering you could also add some urad dhal and channa dhal for that extra crunch!
- Since this method does not have green chilly, you could add extra dried chillies for additional spice.

Mysore Masala Dosa

As the name suggests this dosa has its origin from Mysore, Karnataka. This item will feature on the menu list of all hotels across North and West of India too! What makes it unique from the normal masala dosa is the garlic chutney that is smeared on the inside of the dosa and the dosa batter is also made with a combination of rice and dhals.

Ingredients:

For Dosa batter:

- 1 1/2 cups raw rice

- 1 1/2 cups boiled rice(idli rice)

- 3/4 cup urad dhal

- 1/4 cup channa dhal

- 1/4 cup toor dhal

- 1/2 cup thick aval(poha)

- 1 tsp methi seeds 

- Salt to taste

For red garlic chutney

- 3 dry red chillies

- 1 inch ginger

- 4 cloves garlic

- 2 tbsp roasted channa dhal(பொட்டுகடலை) / dhalia 

- 2 tbsp chopped onion

- 1/2 tsp lemon juice

- Salt to taste

For potato masala

- 2 to 3 boiled potatoes

- 1 medium onion finely chopped

- 2 tbsp green peas(frozen or boiled)

- 2 to 3 green chillies

-  few curry leaves

- 1/4 tsp mustard seeds

- 1 tsp channa dhal

- Salt to taste

- 2 tsp oil

Prep time: 15 hours             Cook time: 30 mins

Preparation:

Dosa batter:

- Soak the rice together in a bowl and all the dhals together in another bowl. Leave it soaked for 4 hours.

 

- Half an hour before grinding add the aval (poha) to the dhals.

- Grind the dhals and then the rice and mix them together with the salt.

- Leave the batter to ferment over night or for 10 to 12 hours 

Red garlic chutney:

- Soak the red chillies in water for 15 mins

- Grind all of the ingredients provided above for the chutney in a blender, mix salt and set aside

Potato masala:

- Boil, peel and mash the potatoes and set aside.

- In a pan, heat the oil and splutter the mustard seeds, then roast the channa dhal

- On roasting, add the chopped green chillies, curry leaves, peas and onions and fry until the onions turn translucent.

- Add 1/8 tsp of turmeric and salt to the above.

- Then add the mashed potatoes and 3/4 cup water and mix well.

- Let the masala cook and blend together. Switch of heat when the masala turns mushy and spreadable.

Making the dosa:

- In a dosa pan, place a ladle of batter in the center and spread it into a circle as shown below.

- Pour 1/2 tsp of oil around the edges of the dosa

- Then spread 1 tsp of chutney on the inside of the dosa and let the dosa turn brown and crisp.

 - Spread a dollop of the potato masala on one side of the dosa.

- Fold the other half of the dosa over the masala and remove to serving plate!

- Finish it with a shot of piping hot filter coffee for the ultimate experience....!!!!!

I am sending this recipe to the Herbs and Flowers - Garlic - Event being guest hosted by: