APPE

Ingredients:
Rice- 2 cups
Chana dal – 1 cup
Urad dal – ½ cup
Thick poha – 1 cup
Green chilies – 6-7
Chopped coriander leaves – ¼ cup
Eno/ baking Soda – ¼ tsp

Salt

Cooking Procedure:
Wash the rice, chana dal and urad dal in separate containers till the water runs clear. Take three times more water to fill each container and soak them overnight. The other day remove the excess water and grind the rice, chana dal and urad dal separately into a fine paste. Use little water while grinding*. As you grind the rice and dals, remove the pastes in one big container. Mix everything well to form a cake like batter. Add salt and leave the mixture to ferment for about 6-8 hours or till it rises. I keep the batter in oven and keep the oven light ON, so that the heat from the lamp boasts the fermentation process.
Before making the appe, finely chop the green chilies and coriander leaves and add it to the batter. Mix the batter well. Crush the poha with hands, add it to the batter and mix well. Just before making the appe, mix in the soda. Heat the appe mould and add a teaspoon of oil in each mould. This how the appe mould looks like. I bought this in India. You can buy it in US as well and is called "Aebleskiver Pan".

Pour a spoon full of batter in each mould and cook it covered on medium heat for about a minute.

Remove the lid and flip the appe.

Let the other side cook till golden brown. Serve hot with coconut chutney. If you want to eat the appe later, I usually remove the appe and keep them on cooling rack to cool so that they remain crispy. When they cool down a bit, I transfer them to a container. You can reheat them in the microwave.

* I use oster blender to blend the dals or rice and add about ½ cup of any ingredient in the blender so that air can circulate and the blades don’t get jammed. If you add too much, the blades get stuck and the required consistency and texture of the batter is not achieved.