This is my recipe to kill the glutton. Feed her till she flips over…suffocated..... :)
Go ahead and try it.........
Appam as I like to call it, is actually called Palappam (Milk Appam) or Vellayappam (White Appam) or Kallappam (Toddy Appam) & forms a part of scrumptious Kerala breakfast main course. (Kerala is a state in Southern India known as "The God's Own Country"). It is normally served with a Stew.
Before I go further I want to give you a drift of how I approach cooking.
My philosophy is that cooking is a sensory experience. The mouth must drool,the nose has to be intoxicated, the eyes have to pop out, the fingers, lips and pallet must want to caress the food, and of course the ear must at least hear the “splosch” “splosch” of the mouth if it has missed the crackle of the tempering spices.
All that said and done, since I belong to the handicapped sex reduced to serving the fairer one, I will get in as much detail as I can. Most importantly, I will highlight the most difficult portions of the expedition, so that the mentally challenged can take that extra ton of precaution, and hopefully it will prevent him from having to literally eat his own misdeeds!
But man, handicapped that he is will, find new ways to land himself in crap. (What's man, if he does everything by the book and actually succeeds?)
So here goes.
The Appam is made from fermented Rice flour. The trick is to get the flour fermented just the right amount, with right consistency and cooking at the right temperature for the right length of time. Now that was simply done, was it not?
So what do you need?
The Basic ingredient is the Rice flour. Of course you could get the rice, wash it dry it and then powder it, and by then have lost your appetite for any thing let alone food. So I would suggest you run along to the nearest Indian Store and grab a packet. You get different brands, with pictures of the most delicious looking Appams. and mind you you will get there slowly, with practice and by carefully following tips given here.
Then you need Coconut Milk. The most ideal way to make it is to grate fresh coconut, drink up the coconut water and then extract milk from the grated white portion of the coconut. Why do you have to drink the coconut water, because you as the male or the species will otherwise find some way to mess up the kitchen and however good your Appams is your mistress will bite your nose off. So take my advice, just pour the coconut water in a glass and drink it all up! Alternatively you could run along to the store a second time and pick up package coconut milk or buy the coconut powder add water at room temperature and make coconut milk to your desired consistency. Ah the consistency, I'll come to it when we mix it all.
Then you need some salt, sugar and dry yeast.
Add the salt & sugar (to your taste), to ten units of rice powder and one unit of coconut powder.
Take half a unit of blood warm water and mix a level tea spoon of dry yeast and mix it well till all the yeast has dissolved.
Add this to the rice and coconut powder mix that you made before. Now what you will get is soft blobs and this by no means is the right consistency.
So here is the trick to get the right consistency. First add water little by little. Mix thoroughly & here I might add that from the mistakes that I have made, please try and do it gently lest you should end up decorating the kitchen ledge. Little by little means say half a glass each time, not half a jug each time.
I must specify, after all some poor slave might just end up in the path of a fast moving female tongue!
Mix and add water till it reaches a consistency of the condensed milk at room temperature. It falls, but with a trifle bit of reluctance. That my dear friend is the correct consistency.
Now is second possible pitfall; fermentation.
That is where the second sense comes into play smell. If it has become fermented then get your better half to smell it. If she comes within 4 feet of it and its is then that she says it will need to be dumped, then its just right!! if you look closely it will have about one and ahalf times in volume. If she starts to swoon before she comes any where near it then you can cook it and have it your self. And last not the least if she smells it in the bedroom, despite it being more then ten long paces away from the kitchen, then look closes you will probably find little black spots, which means that its got fungus in it... So I would suggest you better accept defeat and DUMP IT...
Now you are ready to step into the next level. To lit the fire and kick the pan! The next sense is that of feel. The trick is to get the pan at the right temperature. The problem is that since the pans are so all different not to mention the size of the flame, its tricky to get to the right temp always.
And oh, by the way please be warned that if you happen to pay so much attention in getting the pan HOT, the pan could be the topic of the next accusation from your better half, about your HOT affair! At this stage I take this opportunity to clear myself of having anything to do with promoting your affair.
Coming back to the temperature of the pan you need to experiment and get the temperature right for your flame and your pan. I played it safe and slow. I do not like to heat up things so quickly anyway and like it slow and steady. I do not know about you but I like to heat up things otherwise, but when it come to the pan & when you are doing it for the first time, I suggest you turn on the heat and then turn it off after 30 seconds. Pour about ten table spoons of the dough into the pan and see what happens to the dough.
If it just sits there then I guess the gas never lit up!!! So suggest that you turn on the gas, make sure its lit up and then get the pan heated up. This is the point where one experiences that feeling of elation when one sees the finish line after a gruelling cross country, and conveniently forget that the same pace has to be maintained to get there. This is where you would forget that you had switched off the gas and the pan in just sitting there!!
If you manage to get that right, switch it off after 30 seconds and now with a quick circular motion spread the dough around the pan an let the rest just settle down to the centre to form a thick blob of dough. Any way lit the fire once again and now watch it like a hawk. Cover the pan and allow it to cook. The first time you will run the risk of having to eat the first burnt Appam accompanied with your burnt Ego, instead of the stew. But if you are on the right path as the Appam cooks the fragrance will begin to make you drool with expectation.
As you approach the finish line the centre is beginning to rise up much like an idly and the edges are beginning to turn crispy, just about. Use the spatula to see if the edges separate from the pan easily, then its time to start waving to crowds gathered at the finish line because you are nearly there.
Take a peek under the Appam to see if it has started to turn golden and if the centre has cooked. A quick poke with a fork into the centre will tell you if it has been cooked, If the batter does not stick to the fork, that means its done, you my friend have hit the jack pot.
My experience with the stew will follow in a short while.
You can in the meanwhile serve the Appam with plain sugar!
Go ahead and enjoy yourself...
Madhav
So here is the trick to get the right consistency. First add water little by little. Mix thoroughly & here I might add that from the mistakes that I have made, please try and do it gently lest you should end up decorating the kitchen ledge. Little by little means say half a glass each time, not half a jug each time.
I must specify, after all some poor slave might just end up in the path of a fast moving female tongue!
Mix and add water till it reaches a consistency of the condensed milk at room temperature. It falls, but with a trifle bit of reluctance. That my dear friend is the correct consistency.
Now is second possible pitfall; fermentation.
That is where the second sense comes into play smell. If it has become fermented then get your better half to smell it. If she comes within 4 feet of it and its is then that she says it will need to be dumped, then its just right!! if you look closely it will have about one and ahalf times in volume. If she starts to swoon before she comes any where near it then you can cook it and have it your self. And last not the least if she smells it in the bedroom, despite it being more then ten long paces away from the kitchen, then look closes you will probably find little black spots, which means that its got fungus in it... So I would suggest you better accept defeat and DUMP IT...
Now you are ready to step into the next level. To lit the fire and kick the pan! The next sense is that of feel. The trick is to get the pan at the right temperature. The problem is that since the pans are so all different not to mention the size of the flame, its tricky to get to the right temp always.
And oh, by the way please be warned that if you happen to pay so much attention in getting the pan HOT, the pan could be the topic of the next accusation from your better half, about your HOT affair! At this stage I take this opportunity to clear myself of having anything to do with promoting your affair.
Coming back to the temperature of the pan you need to experiment and get the temperature right for your flame and your pan. I played it safe and slow. I do not like to heat up things so quickly anyway and like it slow and steady. I do not know about you but I like to heat up things otherwise, but when it come to the pan & when you are doing it for the first time, I suggest you turn on the heat and then turn it off after 30 seconds. Pour about ten table spoons of the dough into the pan and see what happens to the dough.
If it just sits there then I guess the gas never lit up!!! So suggest that you turn on the gas, make sure its lit up and then get the pan heated up. This is the point where one experiences that feeling of elation when one sees the finish line after a gruelling cross country, and conveniently forget that the same pace has to be maintained to get there. This is where you would forget that you had switched off the gas and the pan in just sitting there!!
If you manage to get that right, switch it off after 30 seconds and now with a quick circular motion spread the dough around the pan an let the rest just settle down to the centre to form a thick blob of dough. Any way lit the fire once again and now watch it like a hawk. Cover the pan and allow it to cook. The first time you will run the risk of having to eat the first burnt Appam accompanied with your burnt Ego, instead of the stew. But if you are on the right path as the Appam cooks the fragrance will begin to make you drool with expectation.
As you approach the finish line the centre is beginning to rise up much like an idly and the edges are beginning to turn crispy, just about. Use the spatula to see if the edges separate from the pan easily, then its time to start waving to crowds gathered at the finish line because you are nearly there.
Take a peek under the Appam to see if it has started to turn golden and if the centre has cooked. A quick poke with a fork into the centre will tell you if it has been cooked, If the batter does not stick to the fork, that means its done, you my friend have hit the jack pot.
My experience with the stew will follow in a short while.
You can in the meanwhile serve the Appam with plain sugar!
Go ahead and enjoy yourself...
Madhav
