Breakfast Beyond Eggs: Appam and Stew

Here's a little background on my childhood. I was born in Kerala, South India and grew up in Botswana, Africa, so breakfast was always very fresh and very local.

I was lucky to have farm fresh eggs for breakfast in the mornings. And incredibly fresh chicken. I have literally never eaten chicken as delicious as that, since. In fact, I have since stopped eating chicken!

But I digress.

With my South Indian background, eggs are just ONE of many options for breakfast, and sometimes are just an accompanying dish to other staples, like Upma which is something of a dry porridge made out of semolina flour. Upma with a side of eggs and optionally a banana with a sprinkle of sugar is delicious. Say what? Yes, it is certainly an acquired taste, but worth trying if you ever have the opportunity to do so.

Then there is my all-time favorite breakfast for special occasions: appam and stew. Appam is a fermented pancake made out of white rice. It's a breakfast treat, saved for birthdays, Christmas and New Year. And recently, my Mom has been making it for us whenever we go back to visit Toronto.

Sounds weird to have "pancakes" with something savoury like a stew, but appam is not a sweet pancake. If you've ever tried Ethiopian injera, it's similar but not quite as sour as injera and not served cold as injera.

So, if you're adventurous to try a different type of breakfast other than eggs, I'm sharing my Mother's recipe for Appam and Stew, which is her Mother's recipe and definitely tried, tested and true.

My mouth is watering already.

Thanks for the recipe Mummy! xo

Ingredients for Appam:

• 2 cups White Rice
• 1 teaspoon Yeast           
• 1 teaspoon Sugar          
• 1 and a half Table spoon Semolina    
• 1 egg white
• A little Milk

Preparation:

1) Wash rice and soak for 2 to 3 hours to grind.

2) SEMOLINA: Just before grinding the rice (in a blender), mix semolina in a cup of water and cook in low heat stirring constantly till it turns to a thick batter. Take off from the stove and leave to cool.

3) YEAST:  Take litle luke warm water in a deep bowl and add the yeast and the sugar on top of the yeast and close it with a plate and leave it to rise for 10 to 15 minutes.

4) RICE: Drain water from the rice and grind the rice in a blender (USING ONLY MILK) little milk at a time to a smooth consistency. Batter should not become too loose by adding more milk (so be careful with that while pouring the milk). Divide rice and grind into two batches, instead of allat once. That will give more room to grind.

5) Add the cooled semolina mix and the risen yeast mix into the rice batter and mix properly and leave it to ferment for 6 to 8 hours. You may leave it in the oven, overnight. In warm countries it rises faster than in colder countries.

6) BEFORE MAKING APPAM: Take egg white and beat well with little milk and add this along with salt and one table spoon of sugar into the batter  and mix well and keep it for another one hour before starting to make the Appams.

7) HINT: IF THE BATTER IS TOO THICK YOU MAY LOOSEN IT

                BY ADDING MORE MILK AND MAKE THE APPAMS

                THE SAME WAY YOU MAKE PANCAKES USING

                A NON STICK PAN OR A CAST IRON PAN.

8) Don't FLIP the pancakes, just wait until they bubble and are cooked in the center.

CHICKEN STEW OR VEGETABLE STEW RECIPE:

(Ingredients are the same whether you cook chicken with potatoes or only use vegetables)

1) One small chicken whole or Only the chicken breast : 500gm.

2) Ingredients:

• Onions, 3 medium size
• Green chillies, 3 (or more)
• Ginger, 2 teaspoon (if paste) or a medium size
• Garlic, 2 teaspoon (if paste) or three small cloves
• Cinnamon sticks, 4 whole
• Cloves, 5 whole
• Cardamom, 4 whole (you can use powder too)
• Fresh Curry leaves 2 or 3 stems. (You can use Corriander leaves instead, if curry leaves aren't available)
• Black pepper, quarter teaspoon at the end

3) You can add any of these vegetables or all while cooking the 

     chicken:-  Potatoes, Carrots, Beans, Cabbage, Cauliflour,

     Peas, Tomatoes etc or just potato with chicken. I prefer that.

4) Preparation: Heat pan, pour oil and put the chopped oinions,

    cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and let it cook a bit.

    Then add the green chillies, ginger, garlic, curry leaves.

    Mix and after a little while add the chicken, salt with little water to

    cook the meat. (At this time, you can add the vegetables of your

    choice)

    Once the meat is cooked add 3cups of whole milk. If you want

    more gravy add more milk.

    Now add  the black pepper powder, mix and boil again (not long

    though) and serve with Appams either with Chicken stew

    or Vegetable stew.

Options: Whole milk or 2% milk or Evaporated milk or Coconut milk.

                  You can use any of these of your choice.

Recipe: Cake Pops

My sister and I (more her) made cake pops recently for a cookie swap we were invited to.  She was telling me about these cake pop machines you can buy, but you really don't have to

if you can do the following.

My sister made the mix, I rolled the balls and stuck the sticks into them, sis dipped and dunked. 

Et Voila!  They were a huge hit at the cookie swap!  (My sis also made Snowball cookies, recipe to come, soon!)

You can coat them however you like, which would make them wonderful little Holiday presents. 

Recipe: Beets

Beetroots are one of my favourite vegetables to eat and they're so easy to prepare.

I know people like to have them steamed then served cold in salads, but I am not a fan.  I like them warm when eaten.

So, I'm sharing my Mom's quick and tasty beetroot recipe with all of you.

Ingredients:

BEETS  - a bunch of them, peeled, cut into cubes

1 tsp of OIL

1-2 tsp of CUMIN

pinch of SALT & PEPPER

sprinkle of SESAME SEEDS 

OPTIONAL curry leaves

How to cook:

1 tsp of oil in a hot pan, lower the heat, add the cumin, let it brown a little.

Add the beets, add a bit of water, a bit of salt and the optional curry leaves (y'all know how much I love me some curry leaves), cover the pan and let the beets cook through on low heat.

When the beets are cooked through, sprinkle some pepper and some sesame seeds to serve. 

• And alternative way to cook the beets is to toss them into boiling water (unpeeled) and boil them until soft, then dunk them in cold water and the skin will easily peel off (this way you don't get as much beet staining your cutting board).  Then you simply cook in a pan with oil/salt/pepper/cumin and serve with sesame seeds.

 I like to serve beets with indian style masala potatoes, dal (lentil curry) and rice.  

 

Recipe: Summer Skewers

Here's an easy BBQ recipe for Summer Skewers.

Cut into cubes, desired veggies (like zucchini,eggplant, onions and mushrooms), fruits (like pineapples and/or watermelons).  Optional:  tofu and/or shrimp (marinated in soy sauce, chilli sauce, black bean sauce)

Skew the cubes onto skewers and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and BBQ.



Enjoy with a nice cold beer (such as  London Pride) on a hot summers day.

Recipe: Cardamom Cake

This is one of my favourite cake recipes handed down to me from my Mother. 

It's the Elachi (Cardamom) cake...a spongy cake that's great for tea parties or rainy days.

Ingredients:

2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 Tsp Cardamom crushed
1/2 Tsp Nutmeg crushed
1/4 Tsp Salt
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Butter (softened)
4 Eggs
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence
1 Cup Milk

Directions:

Set oven to 350 degrees F.

I like to use fresh nutmeg and cardamom pods and crush them instead of powders which I don't find as aromatic.  Remove the shells of the nutmeg and cardamom and crush into a powder.

Combine the softened butter and sugar together in a big bowl. Add eggs and blend together.

Combine the flour with the crushed cardamon, nutmeg, salt and baking powder together in separate bowl.

Pour the milk and flour into the butter/sugar mixture and blend until smooth.

Grease and lightly flour a loaf pan and pour the batter (should be smooth and creamy).

Bake for 1 hour at 350F

Cool on a wire rack and dust with icing sugar if desired.

Serve with piping hot chai (tea)!

Recipe: Spicy Baked Tilapia

Okay, here's my latest favourite tilapia recipe. Inspired by Olivado's Lemon Zest Avocado Oil! Nyum nyum.

Ingredients:
8 frozen or fresh tilapia fillets
Enough lemon juice to wash and lightly coat the fillets
2 tbsp Olivado's Lemon Zest Avocado Oil (or any lemon infused oil or olive oil)
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup of Ajvar (spicy relish that you can find in any grocery store)
1 tbsp of maple syrup
pepper if desired

Directions:
Set oven to 350 degrees F
Cover two standard baking pans with foil.
Wash the fillets thoroughly with cold water and then with lemon juice.
Place four fillets in each pan.
Lightly drizzle the oil over the fillets.
Add chili, turmeric and salt evenly to fillets, using utensil or hand to rub the dry spices into the fillets, on both sides.
Add Ajvar onto fillets, evenly on both sides.
Drizzle maple syrup on top of fillets.
Add pepper is desired.
*Optional, crush handful of cornflakes and add to the top of fillets.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until fish is tender. Then broil on high for 2-5 minutes (or longer if you prefer it more crispy/dry).

Serve with anything you like (rice, pasta, salad).

Tastes incredible wrapped in a tortilla shell with with avocado, refried beans and spanish rice, like a fish taco. YUM!

IKEA COOKBOOK

It's called “Hembakat är Bäst” (Homemade is Best)

Love the food styling and photography.



Via todayandtomorrow.net