Aapam

I had never ever dared to venture into the Aapam making territory. It was something that my mother did, she rose tall and perfect over my eyes in this area. But once I got into it, the ride was fairly alright. K’s malayalee friend’s mother sort of motivated me, in a tiny way. Mainly, the monotony of breakfast dishes was getting to me. Wonder how I survived on cereal and bread for breakfast back in the day. It almost sounds sacrilegious to the idea of breakfast food. Just kidding! Nothing against cereal and bread, they are excellent sources of iron for the morning. The simplicity of the recipe makes it a keeper and I am going to be sailing on this one atleast couple times a month. The lack of an Aapa chatti did not deter my spirits. We paired it with chicken gravy. My mother usually gives us the signature freshly extracted home grown organic coconut milk with sugar and a vegetable kurma to go with it. Now you know why her image is such in my eyes. She trained K   to eat it with coconut milk and sugar, but this mama is lazy and fed the kids with plain cows milk and sugar.

Raw rice – 1 cup

Boiled rice – 1 cup

Urad dhal – 1/8 cup

Fenugreek – 1 tsp

Poha – ¼ cup

Grated coconut – 1 cup

Baking soda – a pinch (to be used just before making the aapam)

Soak the raw rice, boiled rice, urad, fenugreek and poha for a couple hours – I typically do 4-5 hours for such batters. Grind to a smooth paste, along with the grated coconut. Let the batter be runnier than the regular dosa batter, it needs to spread well to get the thin edge. Consistency can be adjusted after fermentation as well. Add salt to the  batter, mix well and ferment overnight – it should be risen well by morning. Mysore being cold, required overnight time for fermenting and coconut stayed intact for that period. If in Chennai for instance, I might have to consider the coconut getting spoilt and add coconut milk instead to the batter – after fermenting and just before preparing the aapams. 

When the batter is all set, add a pinch or two – not more than two pinches of baking soda to the batter. Heat a non stick pan or the aapa chatti. Wipe the surface with a drop of oil. Pour a ladleful of batter and swirl the pan around (you get what I mean). Cover with a lid for the aapam to cook well. In under a minute, it should get cooked with browned sides and a soft center. Use the spatula and lift gently from the sides and transfer to a serving plate. Hot and light aapams ready.