Week 5: Eriyappe

One of the particularly exciting features of this challenge is that I am getting to learn about Aamchi dishes I have previously never come across (I know, my loss!). Eriyappe is one such dish. I've neither heard of it, nor seem to remember tasting it. This alphabetical culinary search has definitely been interesting, and what makes it better is that my 87 year young grandmother in Pune has now started following my blog! I need to now up my game!

So, on to the letter 'E'. Eriyappes are part of the 'Appe' family (who would have thought?). In appearance, they look somewhat like a cross between a sweetish dumpling and a 'pollo' (look up my recipe for Doddak to revisit what this is!). In taste, they resembled a mini, puffed up 'Surnoli' (a type of Aamchi pancake), which featured recently on the second session of our Thoy Stories series on instagram. The batter needs no fermentation, which is an added bonus over Surnolis.

But, here's the limitation of Eriyappes (or any appes for that matter). You have to make them in a typical "appe kaaili" (as in 'Kylie'). In Aamchi, 'kaaili' is a half moon shaped cooking pan, also called 'kadhai' in Hindi). The appe kaaili is a dish that has multiple depressions in them for you to pour small amounts of the Appe batter. You then shallow fry the appes on both sides to a beautiful golden-brown colour, possibly imparted by the caramelising jaggery and yellow turmeric, and to a slight crispy texture. Did I just hear a worthy 'mmmmm'? I was making this vegan and so I used oat milk, but if you aren't vegan you could simply use regular milk. Also, according to Rasachandrika you can use a frying pan but I think this would take a much longer time and will be more tedious than the easy-cook appe kaili.

I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. My wife and in-laws relished them with white butter ("lonee") but they tasted really good even with pitti chutney - the savoury pitty chutney complementing nicely the sweetish appe!

The yellow dim lighting in our kitchen does not do justice to how these looked, as I only made these in the evening, but trust me, these looked and tasted great!

Ingredients (This made around 21 eriyappes)

1.5 cups of rice

1 cup jaggery (I used powedered jaggery)

1/2 cup of dessicated coconut

1/2 cups of rice flakes or poha (soaked)

1/4 cup non-dairy milk (I used oat milk)

2 tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp tumeric pwd

Salt to taste

Method

1. Wash and soak the rice for 4-5 hours in twice the amount of water.

2. Grind together the rice, soaked rice flakes, coconut (as I used desiccated coconut, this needs to be reconstituted with just a little hot water) and turmeric to a fine batter.

3. Add the jaggery, salt, and milk and beat the batter well to a fine paste like consistency.

4. Put the eriyappe kaaili/pan over low heat and grease each depression with 2-3 drops of coconut oil. Ours is a non-stick appe kaaili, and so doesn't need a lot of oil. If you do not use a non-stick pan, you will have to use more oil to prevent the appes from sticking to the pan.

5. Pour only small amounts of batter into each depression/hole to fill them up until just below the rim without the batter overflowing or spilling into the adjacent hole. While making the second lot I poured a little too much into one of the holes and then the batter overflowed - it was a little messy trying to separate and flip the conjoined appes. 6. Put a lid on the pan to shallow fry the eriyappes to a golden brown colour and crisp texture on one side. (Note: you will know the appe is cooked when the runny batter like texture begins to turn opaque from translucent, and the appes easily wiggle out of the depressions). When one side is cooked such, flip the appes to cook the other side - this time you do not need to cover the dish with a lid.

6. Definitely serve them hot - with white butter or pitti chutney!