String Hopper? Easy Vegan Keralite dish

Namaskaram!🙏

Thank you for your responses to the video on Okra- Where I showed how to harvest, grow, and cook Okra the right way. 

Let me introduce you to the humble yet original Idiyappam also known as Nool puttu or in English "String Hopper". 

Images & recipe by Nmami Agarwal 

Let me start by explaining the terms; Idi - Appam (Beat-pancake), and Nool-Puttu (String-steam cake). The dish can't be coined as a Keralite dish only since it is  popular in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as well. After a little research (wiping my lens in the background), I found out this dish has spread to Malaysia and Indonesia and is known as Putu mayam and Putu mayang. 

The main ingredient used to make this is rice flour. There are three ways to go about your rice flour requirement. We soak raw rice in bulk and then sun dry the soaked rice. Once fully dried (Yes fully dried; if not the powder goes moldy), it's ground into a fine powder and heated at the same time. You can now simply buy fine rice flour from your local store and lightly roast the required amount before using it. 

In Kerala, it's a common breakfast and is also sometimes served as a dinner item. Idiyappam is made by mixing rice flour with BOILING hot water and salt, then sleeved through a pressing tool to form that noodle-like structure. If the water is not boiling hot, the mixture won't stick through. Use a sturdy spatula for mixing to ensure no lumps form. We first form a base, add coconut flakes, and then cover it with another layer of the Idiyappam mixture. We then steam these Idiyappam cakes until soft. Make sure you don't overcook these delicate cakes as they'll lose its softness. 

                   

                   

                   

Images & Recipe By: REVIFOOD

Ingredients (Serves 3)- 

• Water - 2 cups (roughly, Please refer to the images to know the desired consistency.)
• Rice flour - 1 1/2 Cups.
• Salt - 1/4 tsp
• Oil - 1 tsp

This dish is more of the neutral side in terms of flavor with a subtle taste of coconut. Hence we love combining Idiyappam with spicy curries like Vegetable korma, Egg curry, Egg Roast, etc. (Pro tip -If you are traveling in Kerala, I suggest ordering egg dishes or Vegetable dishes as eggs are well cooked and need not worry about food poisoning, unlike meat dishes.) For recipes please click the link under the pictures. 

Here is my dad pressing Idiyappam mixture into Idli-trays to be steamed for dinner. 

Suggested: Choosing Ripe Papayas and Simple Healthy Papaya recipe.

Thank you for reading so far. Please remember to subscribe to my blog and youtube for more posts. Kindest regards,

Sijo