Palappam - With Idly Rice - Vegan & Gluten Free

This Palappam / Lacey Appams -  Kerala style, is made with idly rice . I have already posted a recipe of Instant Appam .  

My friend a Keralite makes awesome food of her country, which, she often sends for me. I,  love her Kerala style of cooking and tasted many dishes from her kitchen. One of them are these soft and spongy appams really good and yum, which she makes with raw rice (will the share her the recipe soon). She serve this is Egg Stew, which is really yum. 

Since I, made this for my guest who were vegan's and vegetarians, served this with Vegetable Stew which was also a perfect combo. These palappam though made with idly rice which one would think will turn hard, but, that's myth, there is method that makes these really soft and delicious. 

Actually as I, was making, the first four my hubby and me enjoyed them just plain without any chutney, gravy or sauce, they were super soft and divine. You will love them do give this a try. Read my notes before trying this recipe.

Makes around 32 to 34 
Ingredients
3 Cups Idly Rice
2 Cups Packed Freshly Grated Coconut grated
4 to 6 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Teaspoon Level Salt
¼ Teaspoon Level Instant Yeast
Water- as needed

Method 

Wash rice thoroughly 3 to 4 times. Soak rice for minimum 3 to 4 hours .

After 4 hours, drain the rice and grind a cup at a time in small mixer jar with 2 tablespoons of grated coconut in 3 to 4 batches . Grind to a fine paste / smooth batter . Do not wash the mixer jar after you finish grinding. Keep it aside. 

This is the most important tip to make these appams soft.
Take one cup of batter in a sauce pan, add 1 ½ cup of water and mix well till well blended. Then on very low flame place the pan  and use a whisk to stir it. 

Let it cook until it thickens,by stirring continuously in low flame. After this thickness it will becomes shiny see pic.  Let this cool for 2 to 3 minutes then add a cup of batter and whisk it till it forms a smooth batter and it is just warm. Take half of this batter, in the same mixer jar along with half of the sugar quantity and instant yeast,  grind till well blended or forms a smooth paste. Add this to the ground batter. Again blend the remaining batter with the sugar till smooth.

Mix all this batter well with a whisk,  place this container in a bigger one that can hold it (so that if it spills, it does not dirty your counter and use the spilled batter- no wastage) cover with a lid,   keep it overnight or for  5 -6 hours or more depending on temperature of the room or the country you stay. 

I, finished grinding and completed the full process at 1 am / early hours - beginning of a new day. Still the batter nearly spilled out of the big pot by 6am. 

When the batter is fermented , now,  add the salt and mix really well. The consistency of the batter should be thinner than that of a dosa batter. So add water accordingly. Keep it a side for at least 15 minutes before beginning to make the appams.

Now heat a non stick appam chatty specially made for making appam . Drizzle some water in the appam pan and when u see the water is disappearing as soon as the water is dropped ,that is the right time to pour appam batter . Oil it and wipe it with kitchen towel ( do this for the first one only, do  not oil after this to make the remaining appams).

Take 1/3 cup ( for measurement - since this quantity is perfect for the pan) pour the batter in the middle of the pan and rotate the by holding both side handles.

 Place the pan on medium low flame and close it with the lid,  cook for 2 minutes, you'll notice that the center of apaam is cooked and edges start leaving the sides of pan ( these should be lacey , that is transparent on the sides ). At  this stage you can decide whether you want it crisp and brown on the sides (so if u want crispy appam cook bit more ,but don't burn them). I, removed them just when they started to leave the sides of the pan. Mine were white at the sides and the bottom golden. 

Taste the first one, adjust sugar and salt in the batter consistency if needed and then make the remaining appam's. The batter for me was perfect so I did not add any additional salt or sugar.

Serve appam with your favorite curry and enjoy, these soft , delicious and divine appams.  

We had these with  Mixed Vegetable Stew - Vegan & Gluten Free - Kerala Style

My Notes
Use only idly rice and not idly rawa, or else the result will not be the same.

Soak the rice for 4 hours only not more, this time is sufficient or else the rice will start to ferment and the taste will change.

Drain all the water in which the rice was soaking. Use fresh water a tablespoon at a time to grind. Preferably try and use a small blender its grinds faster and grinds to a fine paste with less usage of water. Do not add more water to the batter to make it thin at this stage, because after fermenting will is become a little more watery. So add water if necessary after the fermentation process.

I have used 6 tablespoons of sugar, you can  use more or less. According to me this quantity was just perfect.

Use only the quantity of yeast mentioned or else it will have a yeasty flavor and smell.

Add salt only after the batter is fermented.

If you feel the batter is fermented much earlier than you will like to use it. Then place the container / pot in the refrigerator, that's what I did.  

If you do have freshly grated coconut then use one can of coconut milk  for this quantity.

Labels : Appams, South Indian, Kerala, Vegan, Gluten free, Coconut, Coconut Milk, Healthy, Main course, Breakfast