Appam
Appam is a traditional, South Indian sweet dish made with rice and jaggery. It is made during many festivals, functions and marriages too.
The process of making appam is quite simple, but requires some preliminary preparation a day or two before. Although you can make it the same day, appams come out super soft and fluffy if the batter is left to soak (similar to the fermenting process) for one or two days. Appams can be either deep fried or made in a special “Appam Maker” (a special pan used to make sweet and savoury appams – resembles an egg poacher). Here I’ve given the recipe for the deep fried version.
I learnt to make soft appams from my mom a few years ago and I’m happy to share her recipe with some handy tips as well.
Ingredients
Raw Rice (uncooked) – 1 cup
Urad dhal – 1 tbsp
Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp
Fresh Coconut (grated) – 5 tbsp
Fresh Coconut (chopped) – 3 tbsp (optional, see note 4 for alternatives)
Jaggery (coarsely powdered) – 1 cup
Salt – a pinch
Cardamom powder – 1/2 tsp
Ripe Banana (mashed) – 1/4 cup
Whole wheat flour – 2 tbsp
Ghee – 1 tbsp (optional)
Oil – for deep frying
Yield
~25 to 30 pieces
Prep time
3.5 hrs
+ 2 days resting time
Cook time
40 to 45 mins
Method
1) Take rice, urad dhal and fenugreek seeds together in a bowl, wash and rinse thoroughly. Discard the water. Add fresh water and soak for about 3 hours.
2) After 3 hours, drain the water. Grind the soaked rice, urad dhal, fenugreek seeds and the grated fresh coconut together in a mixer to a smooth batter. Do not add too much water, use only the minimum quantity required for the mixer to run. The consistency of the batter should be like thick porridge. Transfer this to a bowl and set aside.
3) Take the jaggery in a small pan, add 1/4 cup of water to this and heat it. Stir continously until the jaggery melts fully. Strain this jaggery water through a fine strainer to filter the impurities, if any.
4) Now take the jaggery water in a pan, add salt and start boiling it in medium heat, stirring occasionally. The jaggery water goes through different stages of syrup consistency until it caramalises. For appam, we boil the jaggery syrup to ‘soft ball’ consistency. Switch off the heat when you get there.
How to check syrup consistency:
Reduce the heat completely when you check the syrup consistency. Drop a bit of the boiling syrup into a small bowl of room temperature water. The syrup should not dissolve and you should be able to scoop it out, roll it between your fingers and get a soft gooey ball. This is the right consistency for the syrup.
5) Add cardamom powder and ghee to the jaggery syrup and mix well. Now slowly add this syrup to your batter. Add wheat flour and mix well till there are no lumps. You can use a hand blender if you have one.
6) Set aside the batter until it comes to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate the batter for up to 36 to 48 hrs.
7) After this resting time, remove the batter from the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature (about half an hour or so). Add mashed ripe banana and coconut pieces to the batter and mix thoroughly. Check the consistency of the batter. If the batter is too thick and doesn’t flow smoothly then add a little water to bring it to a nice dropping consistency (check ‘Thavala Vadai’ recipe for dropping consistency video).
8) Heat the oil for deep frying until medium hot. When it is medium hot, reduce the heat completely.
9) With a small round ladle, take the appam batter, bring the ladle as close as possible to the surface of the oil and slowly drop the batter into the oil. Gently splash oil with a slotted spoon on top of the appam continuously. The batter will sit at the bottom of the oil for a few seconds then slowly start to come up and float (should take about 20s). When it reaches the surface of the oil, gently flip the appam.
10) Fry the appams until golden on both sides and remove from oil. Drain on a kitchen towel to remove excess oil. Serve warm.
Notes
- Urad dhal, fenugreek seeds, fresh coconut and mashed ripe banana give softness to the appam. So I suggest not to skip any of these ingredients.
- The ratio of jaggery to rice is perfect for me. Little less or more jaggery will also work fine for this recipe.
- Ghee and cardamom powder give a very authentic Indian flavour to this traditional sweet. Nutmeg powder can also be used instead of cardamom powder.
- You can use chopped nuts instead of chopped coconuts if you prefer.
- It is not necessary to fry the appams one by one always. You can fry them one by one until half done on both sides, remove from oil and leave it in a colander. When you have 3 or 4 of this half done appams, gently drop them back into the oil and fry them (as a batch), until fully done and golden. This way you save some time.
- Appam stays fresh for a couple of days at room temperature. Beyond that, refrigerate and heat it up a bit before serving.
2 Comments
MotherOfNOMS
Hi Sandra,
Thank you for checking out the recipe and posting your feedback. Nice to know that you like Indian cuisine and yes, like you said there are lot of healthy and varied recipes from all over India to try. Happy to share many more interesting Indian recipes soon!
Happy cooking 🙂
Sandra Ans
Very interesting recipe! I have never tried Appam, but I need to say, that Indian cuisine is fascinating! There are so many delicious foods and healthy recipes!
Thank you for sharing your’s mothers recipe!