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Here's the next recipe from Aruna. This one is a bit difficult, but later
ones will be easier. Don.
 
 
From: Aruna Viswadoss <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 30 Nov 1995 09:59:41 -0500
 
I am just looking at my Mom's recipes for Appalam and Pappadum,
and do not think one can make it here; also, it is a very labor
intensive process; the ingredients are too far-fetched here (some
of them I don't even know the English equivalents of)....
 
Anyway, you can make rice-appalam with not much ado.  This is a
spicy appalam (okay okay looks like your standard papad you get
in restaurants, but we south indians differentiate between
appalam, and pappadum, and vadagam and vathal).
 
Rice Appalam:
 
Rice --- half a litre
salt -- 1/16 of a lit.
2 LARGE or 3 med. sized limes
1/2 tsp asafoetida
green chillies --- 5 to 10 (you can omit this if you choose)
Coconut oil -- 1/16 of a lit.
 
Wash the rice well.  Boil about a litre of water, and remove from
stove top.  When the steam subsides, put the rice into this. Keep
rice in it till the water cools down to barely lukewarm or
"luke-cold" as the case may be.
Pour this into a strainer, and drain all the water completely.
Heat a heavy pan, and roast the rice a little at a time to a nice
golden (not red or brown) color (you have to do this a little at
a time because, you have to grind the rice in a "hand-mill" :))
while it is still lukewarm.  Working with another person might
help.  Powder it really "fine fine", and sift the powder to
catch those stubborn blobs. Throw them away, or re-powder and
re-sift them.
Squeeze the juice of the limes, and filter them. Mix the salt and
asafoetida in a little water, and dissolve them.
 
Take half of the flour, mix with half of the above two liquids,
and put in a stone mortar (the fun part eh??), and pound pestle
[sorry to interpolate, but despite owning a blender, and a huge
grinder whose likes you never see in the West unless they have
been imported, anyway, despite these being motorized and all, we
still have a huge stone mortar and stone pester, and iron pestle,
a wooden pestle, and a flat grinding stone (ammi), and use these
extensively....:(]
 
ooops! Anyway, put the mixture in a stone mortar, and pound with
an iron pestle for about five minutes. (Add more water of
necessary). It has to be a really tight, almost dry to the touch
dough.  Then, place the dough on a flat stone grinder (Ammi)
:)))) and beat with an iron pestle greased with coconut oil. Now
it acquires a slightly elastic consistency. Roll into a long
rope on the stone. Pinch into small bits, smooth these balls,
and place them in a covered vessel.  (Now is you wanted to use
green chillies, you should have ground it with some water to a
fine paste, and strained it using a cloth, and added it to the
first pounding process.)
Take each bit, roll into small smooth balls, roll in rice-flour,
as often as necessary, and spread it out into a thin circle using
a rolling pin.  To prevent appalams from slipping out of your
pin/hands, once you coat both sides to spread it out, soon as you
hit the small circle level, (3 inches in diameter), stop dipping
both sides. Just sprinkle rice flour on top, while the bottom is
still intact, stuck gently to the rolling board/area.  Anyway,
roll them out as big and thin as possible, as evenly.  (Now is
the time to put one ball into your mouth for every 7 or 8
appalams you make :))]
Prepare seven or eight, and dry them immediately in the sun.
Repeat and exhaust this half, and proceed in the same way with
the other half of the flour.  It is necessary to do this half-by
half business because if the mixed dough is kept for a long time,
it will get too soft and the appalams cannot be rolled out. If
you find the dough too hard to roll out, dip the ball in water,
knead again, dip lightly in coconut oil, then roll it out.
 
Store in an air tight container; you can either grill it over
live coals, or gas flame (the kind I love most), roast it that
way and while still warm, smear a little ghee on it (you don't
have to do this)... mmmmm.  Or as many others like it, deep fry
it in hot vegetable oil. till crisp. (2 seconds may be is what it
might take for each appalam).
 
BTW, I do know that sometimes, my mother uses a short-cut to make
this appalam. She uses store-bought rice flour, makes all these
balls with room-temp water and spices, and steams them on a piece
of cloth spread over the steamer.
Then she proceeds with pounding them as mentioned above once they
are slightly cool.  Sometimes she roasts the flour for a couple
of minutes, sometimes she would not do that.  But my grandma
would disapprove of the taste of this easy product.
 
(I think it is a better idea to buy a quality store-bought
appalam/pappadum.  I like Ambika appalam and all their products)
 
Will send you user-friendly recipes later.
 
Aruna