Palappam

 

 

 

Its December …my most favourite month. And the preparations for Christmas are in full swing. The fruits are soaking in the refrigerator, the Christmas tree, the crib  the Christmas star and lights are all up. Adhya  is eagerly waiting for gifts from Santa Claus!! And my son’s is singing “ingle bell ingle bell ingle all ay..oh wa un" …!

In my last post about kalappam I could not stop raving about palappam so today’s post is about palappam yes the famous palappam of Kerala or more popularly called as appam or lace hoppers ...I think it’s everybody’s favourite.  As soon I introduce myself as a malayalee to someone the next statement almost always is “Oh I love appams! “ As I have told in my last post my favourite breakfast is palappam and stew. It’s always a Christmas morning or Easter morning breakfast and quite a regular on our weekend breakfast at home too. You would also see palappams served as a first course meal in all the Syrian Christian weddings in Kerala.

 

I know there are so many recipes for palappam on the internet today I will be sharing my mom’s recipe for palappam the way she does it and always has been doing it.  And I think it’s the most traditional way of making appam rather than the quick recipe which calls for soaking the rice and grinding with coconut and fermenting with yeast overnight. And some recipes call for adding sooji /rava I have never done that though.  My mother’s recipe for palappm calls for rice powder rather rice. She makes this special rice powder from white rice (pacha ari) which is washed in water allowed to dry on a huge cloth then roasted in a large urli to a desired consistency and then sent to the grinding mill to be powdered fine. This is the rice powder that she uses for making delicious palappams.  However I have tried sticking to the way she makes them only difference is that I use store bought rice powder! Just a small short cut that I did owing to the reason I never owned any Indian mixer grinder until now. So someday when time permits should I make the rice powder too! So here goes the recipe for delicious palappam’s

 

Palappam Recipe:

 

 

 

 

 

Notes :

1. The method of cooking the rice flour into a thick batter without lumps needs a little bit of practice as soon as you see lumps in the batter you can take it of the flame and break the lumps and get back on the flame till the right consistency is obtained

 

2. I added 1/3 cup (a little less) to get the batter to the right consistency the next day before making the appams.

 

3. I used ready made coconut milk (kara brand)

 

4. Rice powder used is house brand commonly avaliable in singapore

 

5. Will update the step by step procedure with a picture of the appam chatti closed . I forgot to click one closed!