Aapam
Aapam is a traditional South-Indian style pancake made using well fermented rice batter which has a crispy outer layer and a spongy and fluffy centre
Equipment
- 1 Aapam Pan
Ingredients
- 2½ Cups Dosa Rice
- 1¼ Cup Poha or Flattened Rice (Aval)
- ½ Cup Cooked Rice
- ½ Heaped Cup Grated Coconut
- 1 tsp Active Dry Yeast
- 3 tbsp Coconut Water
- 1 tsp Sugar
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Wash the dosa rice and soak in water for around 4 to 5 hours
- Wash the poha or flattened rice and soak in water for around 2 hours
- Drain the water from dosa rice and poha. In a mixer grinder, add the soaked rice in portions and blend. After the rice is fairly smooth, add portion of the soaked poha and grind to a fine paste. Repeat the process for the remaining batch.
- For the final batch, add the grated coconut as well and the cooked rice and blend smooth.
- Take around 1/4 cup of lukewarm water and add sugar. Now add the active dry yeast and gently mix. Let this mixture rest for 5 to 10 minutes till the yeast is activated. The sign of activation is the mixture becoming frothy and fluffy. If it does not become fluffy, discard the yeast and use a different lot as it is not activated.
- Now mix the yeast mixture and coconut water to the ground batter and add half the amount of salt and mix well. Let this batter rest overnight or for 8 hours in a warm place for proper fermentation. Make sure to use a large vessel, so that there is ample space for the batter to rise, else the batter would overflow out of the vessel.
- Once the batter is fermented, you would see that the batter would have become slightly thinner and aerated. This is a sign of good fermentation.
- Now add the remaining salt for the batter and mix gently. Add some more water if required. The consistency of batter should be very flowy and thinner than the dosa batter. However do not make it too watery either.
- Now heat the Aapam pan and pour a big ladle of the batter in the pan and by holding the handles on both sides, swirl the batter in 360 degree motion to spread the batter well in the pan. Finally the residual batter would settle to the centre which would turn fluffy on cooking.
- Add a tiny amount of oil if you are using a cast iron pan. However if you are using non-stick this recipe does not require any oil for cooking. Cover the Aapam pan with a lid and cook on a medium flame for 2-3 minutes.
- Open the lid and check if the corners have turned slightly brown and crisp and if you touch the centre it must not stick to hand. Remove carefully from the pan by releasing one side and then pulling the aapam using hand
- Serve the Aapam hot with a side dish of your choice.
Notes
- You can use any raw rice of your choice if you do not have dosa rice. Do not use parboiled rice though.
- The Aapam batter must be ground very smooth and should not be grainy.
- The amount of yeast required for full fermentation might also depend on some other conditions like ambient temperature, weather etc. 1 teaspoon of active dry yeast works well for me, however if there is not enough fermentation, you could use up to 1.25 teaspoon of yeast.
- If you are using instant yeast, then you could skip the step of activating it my mixing in warm water with sugar and directly add it to the batter. However you could follow the same process for instant yeast too.
- The Aapam batter becomes slightly runny on fermentation, so make sure that the batter is not too watery before it is fermented.
- While making the Aapam, make sure that the batter is flowy enough and consistency should be thinner than dosa batter.
- If the batter is too thick, it would not spread well and the pores would not appear properly on the aapam.
- At the same time, if batter is too runny it would not coat the pan well, the outer edges would be too thin and all the batter would settle to the centre yielding a very thick Aapam.