Jaggery Appam : South vs North April Challenge

This month I joined yet another cooking event. Divya Pramil's  South Vs North Challenge. I had been following some of its members for a while and this month i decided to join in. to say the truth this cooking  group had been luring me for quite sometime. because. well. i am from Bengal and my husband though originally from Orissa, grew up in Pondicherry and therefore loves everything south has to offer. if he would have his way, we would probably be having idlis for breakfast, adai's for lunch and dosas for dinner. but that is not the case since my dosas are far from respectable. and idlis. oh...h don't even get me started on them. after trying several combinations of rice and dal for the batter i have finally come to the conclusion that instant idlis mixes yield the softest ones. however they are not as soft as the ones that our Tamil friends serve.  so to say the least, ever since we go married, cooking south indian food has been a real adventure for me. but since i am sworn not to give up, i joined the challenge hoping to learn a little about the culinary secrets of the South Indians and hopefully surprise my husband with a perfect homemade south Indian meal someday...

Sorry i digressed....  so i joined the Northern group... and as this month's challenge we had to tackle Karupatti Appam...

With very clear step-by-step instruction, Shama from Easy 2 Cook Recipes challenged the northern team to make these Appams. though i have tasted the salted appams before, Jaggery Appam was new to me. so I am not sure if i got them right. but what i managed to roll off my kadai was nice and crispy. we enjoyed it for breakfast with honey. even my little one liked his bit and asked for some more. 

now a shot of my appams and the recipe...

Recipe adapted from Easy2Cook Recipes

ingredients

1/2 cup raw rice

1/2 cup parboiled rice

1 1/2 tablespoon urad dal

125 gms south indian jaggery (this is what i got at the local indian store)

what i did

i made a thick jaggery syrup, strained off the impurities and kept it aside.

next i soaked the rice and the dals for 2 hours, then ground it to a smooth batter.

i mixed the jaggery syrup to the rice batter, taking care that no lumps were there. 

the first day i had no success with the appams. 

next day, i tried them again. now that the batter had thickened, i added some water until the batter consistency was slightly thinner than pancake batter and then tried making the appam. to do so, i heated the kadai, poured a ladle of the batter in it. then holding the handles i tilted the kadai around and spread the batter in it. 

i then put a spoon of oil on the  spread batter, covered the kadai with its lid and cooked the appam over medium low heat for 8 minutes, until it got done.

next i rolled it off the kadai and served with honey.

Thanks Shama for the recipe and the challenge and thanks to Divya for starting such an interesting event. 

Hoping to get your tips and feedback on my Appams.

Linking this to SHAMA'S EASY2COOK RECIPES & Divya's Space.

p.s : the Black and White photograph was meant for Black and White Wednesday # 80, a Culinary Photography Event started by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of Cindystar. I however mismanaged my time terribly so could send my entry this week. however hop over to Anusha's space Tomato Blues to check out the other nice entries.

and here are few things that you might find useful if you want to try your hands at South Indian cooking...