Appam - Palappam, Vellayappam, Vattayappam

Look at the steam going up as sweet aroma and filling my living room and kitchen. It truly is divine and goes so well with Kadala curry ( black channa dal), Egg roast, Egg curry, Mutton stew, Chicken stew, Veg stew, Veg kurma or even just plain old coconut milk and sugar, which was my favorite one as a child.  I would still enjoy the coconut milk and sugar had it not been for the yearly physical examinations ;) and blood work.

With this recipe, I could guarantee you would get crispier side Appams ( also called Palappams) and softer on the center and extremely soft vellayappams and vattayappams !!!

What you would need to get started - Ingredients 

1. Raw Rice           - 2 cups
2. Grated Coconut - 1 cup
3. Cooked Rice      - 1/2 cup
4. Semolina            - 2 tbsp
5. Sugar                  - 1-2 tsp
6. Yeast                  - 1/2 tsp
7. Coconut water   -  1 can ( just follow the one in the pic below)
8. Coconut milk    -  as needed - I use coconut milk instead of water for grinding, this makes the batter super soft.

Here are pics of the ingredients I use, if you need to see them.

Method:

1) Soak the raw rice in water after washing well for about 4-5 hours.
2) Just 10 mins before you decide to start grinding the rice, add 2 tablespoons of warm water to the yeast with 1/2 tsp of sugar and close it with a lid.( we do this just to see if the yeast is active, if its a new packet that you are opening, you can add it directly to the rice while grinding)
3) 15 mins before you start grinding, add 1/2 cup of water to the vermicelli to a saucepan and keep stirring till it is cooked and then cool it before you add it to the rice mixture for grinding along with rest of the ingredients.
4) Grind all of the ingredients to a smooth batter.

For the vellayappam ( smaller appam) and the vattayappam , make the batter a little coarse, the batter should be runny.

Overall, the consistency of the batter should be like the dosa batter for the Appam and like the idli batter for the smaller appams.

Hope this helps !



If you use brown raw rice, you would appams like the ones below, I believe they would be more healthier.... brown or white - either ways, the appams are awesome !!!

Some vellayappam and mutton curry :-)

While making vellayappam ( small appam) make sure, you don't flip it, you should just pour the batter, then cover and cook till like 25-30 seconds, depending on the flame ( use medium flame).

I use a transparent lids to cook this, so this way without lifting the lid, I know if the vellayappam is cooked or not.

Here is a video... sorry about the quality -

Not sure, if it works or not ;) let's check, after I publish the post.

Alfredo Chicken Boat

   

I had been waiting to try this recipe. It came out so good, you can fix this for dinner in 30 minutes and it will be gone in 3 minutes :-) . My kiddos & my husband praised me for every bite they took...so its a rewarding recipe too. We just finished having this for diner, trust me I haven't even done the dishes, I walked straight to the computer to write down the recipe before I forget.

So this is how I made it....

What you need to get started :


Chicken breast - 2 large
French bread - 1
Garlic powder
Oninon - 1 medium
Cream Cheese - 8 oz
Milk - 3/4 cup
Mozzarella cheese - 1 cup ( you can be generous if you want to, depends on ur heart ;) )
 butter - 2 tablespoons
Salt
Pepper
Parsley  -  to garnish


1)Cut the center portion out of the bread, like how you see in the pic. This portion that you cut out , you can eat it with the left over Alfredo sauce later.

2) Cook the chicken breast with salt and pepper, with 1-2 cups of water.Do not over cook it, it will become rubbery.

3) Once its ready, cut it into bite size pieces, not shredding, cut it into cubes.

4) In a pan, add a little ( 1-2 tablespoon ) butter, when it melts, add the chopped onion, when it becomes translucent, add garlic powder, the cream cheese cut into small cubes and let it melt, add the chicken stock to this so that the cream cheese won't get burnt.

5) The above, starts getting creamy, now add 1 cup of milk to this.And let the sauce get thick. Switch off.

6) Pour the above sauce into the boat. Top it with some mozzarella, and bake till cheese melts at 350 degree F. Garnish with some parsley.

7) You wouldn't have used all the sauce for the boat if you stuck to my measurements. So now you can enjoy the portion of the bread that you cut off in the beginning with this remaining sauce..

Next day morning, go for a good walk and burn 500 calories !!! 

A special Egg Curry

This gravy is actually the base for the brinjal gravy that is served as an accompaniment to the Tamil Nadu Biriyani. I kept trying different recipes for the Brinjal gravy but never found the taste I was searching for until I ate at Charles and Preethi's place. Charles' mother prepared the brinjal gravy that day and it was the best and the perfect taste I was looking for. I will share with you the recipe of the brinjal gravy at some point in the blog. Well so that is the story of the base of this egg gravy. My guests loved it ! So, definitely I will be making it again.