Most commonly served as a breakfast dish with coconut milk, appam has a soft center that absorbs the milk while its crisp edges give a slight crunch, making the dish irresistible.
Course: Breakfast
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients
2cupsraw rice
2cupsidli rice or parboiled rice
½cupurad dhal
½cup aval(flattened rice)
2tspmethi seeds
salt to taste(I use 2 tsps)
Instructions
Soak the raw rice and idli/parboiled rice together. Soak the urad dhal, methi seeds and aval in separate bowls. Soak everything for at least 2 hours.
Add soaked methi seeds and the water used to soak them into a wet grinder. Grind until the methi seeds are flattened.
Once the seeds are flattened, add urad dhal. Grind for 5 minutes.
Then, add the soaked rice, aval and grind into a smooth batter by adding water as needed. The batter should be similar to the consistency of dosa batter.
Add salt to the batter and mix well with your hands.
Transfer the batter to a tall container. The container should be about ⅔ full.
Ferment the batter for 7-8 hours or overnight. The batter should rise as it ferments.
To make appam, take a spoonful of batter and pour over a hot appam pan.
Rotate the pan to make a circle or flower shape.
Cook on medium flame. Insert a toothpick into the center of the appam to check if it is cooked. The toothpick should come out clean.
Serve hot with fresh coconut milk.
Notes
To make coconut milk: Add 1 cup grated coconut, 2 cups warm water and 2 cardamom pieces to a blender. Blend until smooth and filter using a strainer. Add sugar as per taste to the coconut milk and serve. To make the coconut milk lighter, add cold whole milk as needed.