Appam (rice pancakes) or glutenfree flat bread, is a favorite breakfast meal in my family. Appams served with stew is a very popular breakfast combination in southern India, with its origins from Kerala. Traditionally served on festive occasions, this healthy breakfast idea is vegan and gluten-free. Those on a paleo diet can also try the Appams with egg or chicken stew. This delicious meal is full of nutrition and the children especially will enjoy eating the soft and fluffy Appams alongside the mildly spiced stew.
Prepping for the Appams actually starts 12 hours before the actual cooking process. I also chop the veggies the night before and just add them to the curry in the morning. Since the potatoes may brown overnight, make sure you keep them soaked in water. Hope you like my recipe.
Ingredients
2 cups Raw Rice
¾ cup grated coconut
1½ cups regular water or coconut water
½ tsp dry yeast
1 cup thick coconut milk (optional)
1-2 tbsp cooked rice
Water, as required for grinding
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp Himalayan salt
Soak the raw rice for about 4 hours and drain. In a small bowl, add ¼ cup lukewarm water, the yeast and sugar, mix it well. Allow it to rise, this may take around 20 minutes. Grind the drained raw rice, grated coconut and cooked rice with some water until it becomes a smooth batter (you can use coconut milk instead of grated coconut while grinding the rice, if using coconut milk then avoid adding the extra water or add small amounts of water, even you can try coconut water). Mix this along with the yeast and let it ferment (it needs around 4 -6 hours minimum, overnight is best). After the fermentation process is done, check the batter and add salt & sugar to the batter as per your taste.
Heat an appa-chatti (Appam Kadai/ wok) and pour 1/3 cup batter into it & rotate the appa-chatti to make sure that the batter spreads in a circular form. Cover & cook. Once the centre portion is cooked, remove from fire. Serve it piping hot with the vegetable stew.
Tip- If you have any left over Appam batter, you can add 2 tablespoon of that instead of using yeast. If you find it difficult to make the Appams in this manner, just heat a regular non-stick pan and make them they way to cook soft round dosa's.
Vegetable Stew
Ingredients
1 Carrot, cubed
2 Potatoes, cubed
1 Onion - sliced thin
4-5 Green chillies, roughly chopped
1 tbsp each crushed Ginger & garlic
½ tsp crushed pepper powder
1" piece Cinnamon
2 green Cardamoms
½ tbsp Coriander powder
1½ cup Thin coconut milk
½ - ¾ cup Thick coconut milk
a handful Curry leaves (divided)
Himalayan salt, as per taste
2 tbsp Coconut oil (and more for tempering)
1 tsp Mustard (divided)
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
Place a pan on the flame and heat the coconut oil. Once hot, add the whole spices (cinnamon and cardamom). To this add the sliced onion, ginger, garlic, curry leaves and green chilli and sauté it for a few minutes till the onion becomes transparent (no need of browning the onions). Add the cubed vegetables & combine it well. Now add the thin coconut milk and salt, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook till the veggies are tender. Finally, add the thick coconut milk and cook for another 5 minutes and remove from the flame.
For the stew tempering, heat some coconut oil and add the remaining mustard seeds, curry leaves and the sliced garlic, wait till the mustard seeds pop and the garlic gets a nice golden colour. Take it off the flame and temper the stew with this. Serve this delicious stew alongside the appams.
Tip- You can also try using other vegetables like green peas, sweet corn and mushrooms for this stew, it tastes really good and the kids will enjoy the colourful veggies.
Deepa is a busy mom of two, who loves cooking and her latest hobby is styling for new born baby photography and birthday cake smash pictures. Working with babies gives Deepa immense joy and she loves their positive energy. She assists her husband, a UAE based freelance photographer, who does food shoots for restaurants and also shoots for the popular Middle Eastern food channel - Fatafeat. Together they capture memorable moments on camera. To have a look at their work, just follow the links below.