Aapam Ishtew

Aapam is one of the dishes I liked better when made by my mom, or even some street vendors in Kerala... and I didn't feel like making it at home until now as I felt it needed a special contraption to cook it.

Aapam has a thick spongy center and a thin dosai-like edge - the shape sort of resembles vintage flying saucers :)

My mom gifted me this little non-stick aapam pan-of-sorts recently and I decided to try it out. The batter is my version of it, I am still experimenting with proportions, but this batch was quite good.

Aapam turned out quite spongy and tasty, even though the center was not as thick as I wanted them to be. It is cooked only on one side usually, sort of like Injeras that I make. The batter needs to ferment a bit and get fluffy just like for injera, but rather than buckwheat or tef or all-purpose flour that I use for injeras, appam is made with a rice-based batter.

Fermentation is easy enough in hot places, but, since it is still pretty cold here, I warm up my oven to 200°F, turn it off, and leave the batter in there to ferment. Additionally, I add some yeast to the batter to help the fermentation.

Aapam is usually served with some sort of a stew ("ishtew", in local lingo), so I made a mixed vegetable stew with coconut milk.

Ingredients
batter:
2 cups par-boiled rice
2 cups plain white rice
¼ cup urad dal
1 Tbsp fenugreek seeds (optional)
1 Tbsp rapid rise yeast (optional)

stew:
vegetables like potatoes, peas, carrots, green beans
½ tsp turmeric powder (optional)
3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 Tbsp grated ginger
1 medium onion diced
1 can light coconut milk
2 Tbsp canola oil or coconut oil

salt to taste

Preparation

1. batter: soak the batter ingredients overnight and grind to a fine batter; add some yeast and leave in a warm place to rise for a few hours
2. stew: heat oil in a pan and sauté the ginger and garlic, then add the onions, turmeric powder and some salt, allow it to sweat a bit; then add the veggies and a little bit of water and steam the veggies; then add the coconut milk, cover and simmer to desired thickness; adjust salt to taste
3. aapam: add some salt to the fermented batter, stir; heat the aapam pan over medium heat; pour a ladleful of batter in the center of the pan, pick up the pan and swirl it a bit to allow the batter to coat the sides of the pan, cover and cook till holes form on the top and the center lump of batter is cooked through