Breakfast
Lacy palappam with mild coconut stew — Kerala’s hopper-and-ishtu breakfast.
About
Appam (Malayalam: അപ്പം; also palappam, vellappam) is a fermented rice hopper cooked in an appachatti, a deep round pan. Coconut milk in the batter keeps the centre spongy while the rim crisps into lace. English Wikipedia records the hopper in Sangam Tamil verse and as a close relative of dosa whose recipe has changed little; Malayalam Wikipedia treats it as both a statewide morning plate and a Nasrani table marker. The classic pairing is stew — ishtu or mappas — vegetables or meat simmered in thin coconut milk. Homes serve it for breakfast and dinner; egg roast and kadala curry sit beside it as often as the white stew.
The hopper is ground rice, coconut milk, salt, a pinch of sugar, and a ferment — yeast, or toddy (kallu) in the older method. Cochin Jews used fresh toddy, as English Wikipedia notes. The stew is coconut milk with potato, carrot, beans or peas, onion, green chilli, curry leaves, black pepper, cinnamon, and cloves. Meat versions add chicken, beef, mutton, or duck. Lime or a few shallots finish many Christian kitchen pots.
Soak rice, grind it with coconut milk, and leave the batter to rise overnight. A ladle goes into a hot, lightly oiled appachatti; the cook swirls so a thin film climbs the sides, then covers the pan so the centre steams. For stew, whole spices and onion are sautéed, vegetables or meat go in, thin coconut milk is poured, and the pot simmers until tender. Thick coconut milk is stirred in off a hard boil so the gravy stays pale and does not split.
Tear the lace and dip it in stew. Vegetable ishtu is the everyday plate; chicken or beef mappas is the feast version. Wikipedia’s Kerala cuisine page lists stew or egg curry as the usual partners. Tamil Nadu tables often pour sweetened coconut milk instead. Kadala curry, egg roast, and a simple coconut chutney appear on the same breakfast.
An egg cracked into the centre makes an egg hopper. Kallappam is a thicker, toddy-fermented cake, cooked for Easter in many Christian homes; yeast now often stands in for kallu. Pesaha appam is the unleavened Passover bread of Nasrani kitchens, served with pesaha pal. Vattayappam is a steamed, slightly sweet rice cake — a tea-time cousin, not this hopper. Idiyappam (string hoppers) is a separate steamed-rice breakfast. In central Kerala, Wikipedia notes, stew is often beef or lamb rather than chicken; duck can take the same coconut-milk gravy.
Gallery
How it is steamed, served, and varied — open any image for a larger view.
7 photos
More dishes
Other famous plates from Kerala’s kitchen.