It would be an understatement if I say I love Appam. Traditional Appam without any yeast or cooking soda made Tamilnadu style is one of my favorite comfort foods. Soft, melt in mouth center thats fluffy and yet crispy edged Appams with the mild spiced coconut flavoured Vegetable Stew is a combo that’s hard to beat! Growing up, I was a huge fan of appams which mom used to make. While she made kurma/spicy gravy to go with it, vegetable stew was unheard of those days - in our home.
While everyone relished spicy gravy with soft appams, I would crave for sweetened coconut milk, called as Thengai Paal. Its one of the easiest but best side dish to go with fluffy appams. All it needs is extracting fresh coconut milk which is the only time consuming part! It is either sweetened with powdered sugar or jaggery. I would ask Amma to make sweetened coconut milk only for me, not understanding its would be tough for her to attend to individual needs when there are 6 others to take care of. Amma being Amma always entertained me 🙂 After getting married, I learnt some tips and tricks from the Mother-in-law who is an expert in making delicious Traditional Appams without using any additives.
How to Make Traditional Appam Recipe
📖 Recipe
Traditional Appam Recipe with Step by Step Pictures
Wash and soak rice along with urad dal and fenugreek seeds for atleast 6hrs. Drain the additional water and grind it into a smooth paste that is of flowing consistency.
Add salt to taste along with coconut water from one coconut (or use 1 cup thin coconut milk) and let the batter rest for at least 8hrs (Usually I grind it by night so it gets a resting time all through the night and the batter would be well risen by morning).
Mix additional water to make the batter to the pour-able consistency. It should be a little watery compared to that of dosa batter.
Take an appam kadai (a normal kadai will also do, but this is easy to handle). Pour a ladle of batter in the center of kadai and quickly turn the kadai in repeated circular motions until all the batter has been spread well through out the kadai. Here is a pic of how it should look. The center should be little thick (making it fluffy) and the edges should be crisp.
Drizzle little oil along the edges to make it more crisper (again optional) and cover the kadai with a lid. Let it cook for a couple of minutes and then take it out to serve hot with stew.
Recipe Notes
To make coconut milk, grind about 1 cup of coconut pieces along with a cup of water for a minute. Squeeze the coconut out of the milk. This would be the thick first milk. To get the second and third milks, repeat the procedure until only colorless coconut remains. Make sure you dont over-grind the coconut, for it might separate the fat from the coconut and all you would be left is coconut fat and water. On the other hand, ready-to-use coconut milk can be used as well.
