Appam & Vegetable Stew

Appam is a south Indian breakfast item. It is eaten with either stew, egg curry or chicken curry or else coconut chutney.

It reminds me of my childhood days in Kerala.  Anyways (deep sigh), lets get back to business.

I had this misconception that appam is very difficult to make and so, I never even cared to find out about the process until one day I saw my sister-in-law making it. Realized it is doable.


Well, like everything else, I make it from scratch. No store brought rice flour for me.

Ingredients:

Pachari, (white raw rice) – 2 cups (I use idli rice)

Coconut – 1 cup

Yeast – 1 tsp

Sugar – 1 tbsp

Cooked rice – ½ cup

Salt - as required

Warm water

Preparation:

Clean rice and soak it for 5 hours.

Now drain and transfer to a mixer.

Add the coconut, cooked rice, sugar, yeast and little warm water and grind to a paste.

Transfer to a big vessel and allow to ferment for 8 hours.

When the batter is ready, add a little bit of salt.  Mix well.

Warm the appam chatti (appam maker)

Pour a ladleful of batter into the appam chatti and rotate it.

Cover and cook.

Fluffy, tasty appam is ready.

Appam goes very well with vegetable stew. Very easy to make and nutritious. Here goes.

Ingredients for Stew:

Potatoes (cut in small cubes) – 2 nos. 

Beans (cut in 1" long piece) – 10-12
Green peas – ½ cup
Carrot (cut into small pieces) – 2 nos.

Cinnamon – a small stick
Cloves – 2 nos
Cardamon - 4 (remove the skin)
Onion (chopped) - 1 medium size
Ginger (cut into thin long piece) - 1" piece
Garlic (chopped) - 1 clove
Green chillies (sliced) - 2 nos.
All Purpose Flour - 1 tsp
Milk - 1/2 cup
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Black Pepper powder- 1/4 tsp
Vegetable oil - 1 tbsp.
Curry Leaves - a few

Preparation:

In a non stick pan, add oil. When the oil is hot, add cinnamon, cloves and cardamom.

Now add ginger, garlic and curry leaves. Then add green chillies.

After a few seconds, add onion and saute till it becomes transcluscent.

Now add the potato cubes, carrot and green peas. Add salt and water. Mix, cover and cook till    vegetables are well cooked.

Mash some potatoes so to thicken the gravy.

In a bowl mix the flour and milk together until all the lumps disappear.

Pour this to the vegetables.

Add garam masala and black pepper powder. Mix and simmer in low flame for 5 min.

Vegetable Stew ready.  Happy eating!