Chettinad Appam



Appam with Coconut Milk and Chutney!



Appam is my son's favorite dish. It's not only delicious but also got medicinal value, which

use to cure mouth ulcers, stomach ulcers and reduce body heat. The combination of

fenugreek, rice, jaggery and coconut milk works wonders.

Usually, we eat with coconut milk. But for the spicy touch, we use to make tomato chilly chutney, in addition to coconut milk.



Tomato Chilli Chutney!



Ingredients:

Raw rice/long grain rice/paccharisi - 1 cup

Idli ponni arisi/idli rice/par boiled rice - 1 cup

Urad dhal/black gram - 1/4 cup

Fenugreek seeds - 2 tsp.

Salt - 1 tsp.

Coconut milk:

Grated coconut - 1 cup

Crushed Vellam/Jaggerry - 1/2 to 1 cup ( I use 1/2)

Cardamom powder - 1/8 tsp. or

Crushed cardamom - 2

Warm water - 1 cup

Hot Milk - 1/2 cup

Method:

Soak rice, dhal and fenugreek for 1 hour.

Add salt and grind like idly/dosa batter.

Allow it to ferment for 6 to 8 hours, the batter would have doubled up by the time.

Fermented batter produces a nice aroma, esp., from fenugreek .

Now, it's time to make Appam

Take a non-stick Appam pan, pour one scoop of batter into the pan and rotate it (the pan) to

spread evenly. The centre would be thick, and the corners would be thin. If bubbles appear,

then it indicates the batter has fermented well enough. Cover with the lid, let it cook for 30

seconds to 1 minute, at medium heat, until the corners become crispy and the centre portion

is cooked enough. Transfer the Appam to plate and stack the appams one over the other.



Coconut Milk With Jaggery/Palm Sugar!

 



Fermented Batter/Maavu!

Bubbles Appearing!

For coconut milk, thaw the coconut if it's been frozen. Fresh coconut yields more milk,

though. Add enough warm water and grind it in the mixer. Squeeze out the milk using a

kitchen linen.(clean white cloth)

You can extract more milk with the same coconut again, repeating the above procedure.

Add Jaggerry to the hot milk and let it dissolve. Strain it with a filter, to get rid of sand

particles from the Jaggerry, if any. Mix it with coconut milk, check the sweet, add more

Jaggerry/sugar, if needed.

Serve Appam with coconut milk.

For spicy touch, serve with tomato/chilli chutney.