These Sri Lankan hoppers (aka appam) are soo good, they are made with fermented rice flour or raw rice, coconut milk and a few more ingredients. Nutritious and super delicious. The perfect breakfast if you ask me.
Pre task. Soak the raw rice in lukewarm water for about 3 hours or longer. If you don’t have any cooked rice (leftover) boil some now. Boil approximately 50g of rice which will give approximately 1 cup of cooked rice. Set aside for later.
In a mug combine the yeast with the sugar in warm water and allow it to rest until it’s beginning to bubble up. This should be approximately 10-15 minutes.
Using a food processor whizz the cooked rice and the soaked rice with coconut milk or the fresh coconut and add a little water until it becomes a thick batter.
Add salt and the yeast mixture to the rice and whizz continuously until all are combined.
Take a glass bowl out and transfer the batter. Cover with a lid or clingfilm and allow it to ferment. Ideally overnight. 6-8 hours.
The batter should be runny but not too watery so adjust its consistency by adding more water and/or some more coconut milk.
Pour the batter into a jug or a smoothie bottle (I find it easier to handle).
Place the appam pan or the appachetty (special appam pan) on fire, when this is slightly hot pour in some batter (the amount or quantity of a small ladle or the equivalent of 8-10 tablespoons). Move the pan in a circular motion so that the batter is spread around on the edges as high as this permits.
Add an egg in the centre (the batter is thicker but don’t worry, it’s as it should be) and cook for about 2 minutes (covered) until the egg it’s cooked. This can be made hard or left soft depending on your preferences. If cooking with one quail egg the time will differ from when cooking with a regular egg. The egg will indicate when it's cooked.
Serve while hot with sambol, chutney, any curry or a nice dhal (dal).
Notes
* salt - don’t add too much in the batter so you can add some more when making them. I love a little salt and pepper regardless of whether you add the egg in the centre or not.* There is a secret behind why I use quail eggs and not regular chicken eggs. The simple secret is that I want to have more than two pancakes. Ha ha.I could not stop and have just two. I can’t have more than two regular eggs but I can easily have four quail eggs.This is if I have no other dishes to serve it with. I prefer eggs only if I have these at breakfast but I make them simple too to have with a nice potato and cauliflower curry or dhal or any meat curry. Oh my! I’m drooling already.* eggs - If you don’t have quail eggs use any small chicken eggs.* the raw rice can be mixed with regular white and brown rice. Sometimes I add a handful of mung beans too for extra goodness. I use lukewarm water but that’s not necessary.* if you want to replace the yeast just add 1 levelled teaspoon soda bicarbonate. If you don’t have yeast, use 100 ml beer which is a small glass. Just add to the batter.