Kerala Style Vattayappam

Do you have some favorite childhood snacks?  And did you ever tried to recreate it?  Vattyappam was a after school snack or breakfast at my home when growing up.  The fresh tender coconut and its water when mixed with soaked rice and ground in a stone grinder did the magic to the batter.  But I was never able to recreate it when I started cooking.  I still wanted my kids to enjoy them,.  So I used to make Vattayappam for them even though it was never the prefect one.  

I was in a constant hunt for finding a perfect recipe for Vattyappam.  I have 4 or 5 version of Vattayappam recipes, but they never yielded the texture I was looking for.  Either they turned out to be too soggy or soft and don't have that crumbly texture.  The batter consistency, rice to coconut ratio, rice type and fermentation time all contributed to the result.

After many experiments with several versions of recipes, I finally settled on this fool proof recipe for perfect textured Vattayappam.  If you are struggling to get a perfect vattayappam, this recipe is for you.  Please do try this recipe and let me know.  Check out instagram for the video.

Ingredients

1 cup - raw Ponni rice

1 cup - fresh/frozen grated coconut

1/2 cup - sugar

3/4 cup - lukewarm water

1/2 tsp - salt

1/4 tsp - instant dry yeast

1/2 tsp - cardamom powder (refer notes)

Kappi 

2 tbsp - rice batter 

1 cup - water

Directions:

• Wash raw Ponni rice few times till the water clears up and soak the rice for 4 hrs or over night.
• Strain the water completely from the rice.
• Add the rice to the blender and 1/4 cup of lukewarm water (out of 3/4 cup of water) and grind to a fine paste.

Kappi

• Take a sauce pan and add 2 tbsp of the ground rice from the above step plus 1 cup of regular water to the pan and mix well using  whisk.
• Turn on the flame to low to medium and cook the mix till it thickens by stirring continuously.
• Turn off the flame and keep it aside to cool completely.
• Add 1 cup of grated coconut, 1/2 cup sugar and salt to the ground rice which is in the blender.  Add rest of the 1/2 cup of lukewarm water and grind to a very smooth batter.
• Add the kappi, dry yeast and cardamom powder to the batter in the blender and blend on low speed for 10 seconds till everything is mixed well.
• Transfer to a big bowl.  Cover it with a lid and keep it in a warm place to ferment and rise till it gets to double the volume for 4 hrs.
• Grease a 8 inch steel plate with coconut oil.  Gently mix the batter with a ladle and transfer the batter to the greased plate.  Add raisins to the top of the batter at this point, if  you prefer raisins.
• Place it in a steamer and cook on medium heat for 20-25 minutes or till the skewer comes out clean when tested.
• Remove from the steamer and let the Vattayappam cool down completely.  Cut into desired shapes and enjoy!

Notes:

• Make sure to drain the water from the soaked rice completely so that the water measurement is correct when you add the water to grind the rice.
• Remove the skin of cardamom and add some sugar to it and it will be easy to grind into a powder in a coffee grinder.  Use 1/2 tsp of this mix in the recipe.
• Make sure you only blend the yeast on low speed when you add it to the blender.
• Don't ferment the batter over 4 hours.  Otherwise the batter will get sour.
• Microwave a cup of water for 2 minutes.  Then place the bowl with batter including the lid in that warm microwave.  Set a timer for 4 hrs and let it ferment there.  Alternatively if you have a warm option in your oven, you can keep there.