Joan's Broccoli Madness

My husband and I once tried this salad at Costco and the both of us fell immediately in love with this salad. It was a broccoli salad with some roasted cashew nuts, bacon, broccoli of course, raisins and shallots. It tasted sweet and sour. Perfect balance I should say. I tried to google for the recipe and found out that this broccoli salad is served at Souplantation and Joan's broccoli madness salad that is sold at Costco is also from Souplantation. I think this is when my family started to became a regular at Souplantation. Back to my googling for the recipe, I found this recipe on the souplantation blog. They were so generous to share this recipe. I have tried this recipe out a couple of times and it turns out exactly like the one in Souplantation except that I omit the bacon and try to make it vegetarian.

Ingredients

Serves 6-8.

1 bunch uncooked broccoli*, cut into florets

½ cup crumbled cooked bacon (optional)

½ cup cashews

1/3 cup raisins

¼ cup chopped red onions

Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Directions

1. Mix the first five ingredients in a large bowl.

2. In a second bowl, beat dressing ingredients together gently until smooth.

3. Toss the salad with the dressing approximately 10 minutes before serving to allow flavors to meld. Serve on chilled salad dishes.

*The broccoli is a loose guideline: often people have to make it a few times before they get it just the way they like it.

Simple Dhall Curry

This is a very quick version of sambar or dhal curry that I occasionally make for my family. My mom taught me this recipe as it was pretty simple and I can quickly cook this for dinner after getting from work. It tastes really good, it's quick to make and does not require a lot of ingredients compared to making sambar.



Ingredients

1/2 cup split, skinned moong dhal, washed and soaked for about 1/2 to 1 hour
4 cups of water
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 medium sized onion, sliced
1 green chilly, sliced
a handful of curry leaves
1 medium sized tomato, chopped
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder.
1 tablespoon cooking oil
salt to taste
chopped coriander leaves for garnishing

Directions

1. Cook the soaked moong dhal with water and the sliced garlic until it turns mushy.
2. In another pan heat the cooking oil on medium high and add the cumin seeds.
3. Next add the sliced onions, green chillies and curry leaves and fry until the onions turns a little           brown.
4. Lower the heat and add the turmeric powder and fry for another 30 seconds.
5. Add in the chopped tomatoes and fry for about a minute or so.
6. Then add in the cooked moong dhal and mix well and let the dhal come to a boil.
7. Add more water if the dhal is too thick and adjust the thickness to your liking.
8. If the dhal is too water, let it simmer until you get the desired consistency for your dhal.
9. Season with salt and lastly add in  the chopped coriander leaves.
10. Serve hot with steaming basmati rice and other side dishes.

Cajun Potato Salad ala Barbeque Nation

During our summer home leave, we decided to go India for a short visit. During our stay there we went to a restaurant called Barbeque Nation. They have quite a unique concept. My kids, husband and I just loved the free flow of barbequed shrimp, chicken, kebabs...and a lot more that I can't even remember now. All that I can remember is how fresh, delicious and scrumptious the food was. Only my mom had some problems with the food. She was a vegetarian during her trip to India and she just wasn't used to the concept of having a barque fire right on the table top and having grilled paneer and vegetables. They did the usual Indian buffet at the back, but none of us really bothered to have the buffet since the barbeque itself was so great. Anyways, we were served a potato salad as an appetizer and my youngest who doesn't eat vegetables at all, just loved this potato salad.  I looked to this recipe on the internet and I think I found this recipe on a forum, from a chef who actually works at BBQ Nation. The recipe was spot on. Everytime I make this for my son, I feel like going back to India to BBQ Nation!

Ingredients

1 lb baby potatoes

for the dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoon tomato sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoon chat masala
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon chilly powder
1 shallot, diced finely

cooking oil, for deep frying

Direction

1. Wash the baby potatoes and drain.
2. Bring a pot of water to boil, and gently drop the baby potatoes into the boiling water.
3. Boil the potatoes for about 10 minutes or until they are half cooked.
4. Once the baby potatoes are half cooked, remove them with a slotted spoon and leave 
     them to cool down to room temperature.
5. Once the potatoes are at room temperature, cut each baby potato in halves or quarters 
    depending on the size of the potato. Mine were pretty small so I just cut them into halves. 6. Heat a pot of cooking oil on medium heat. Fry the baby potatoes until they turn crispy 
     and place them on some kitchen towels.
7. Next prepare the dressing. Place all the ingredients for the dressing in a bowl and mix       
    well. No additional salt is needed for this dressing but adjust the sweetness to your liking. 
8. Finally mix the crispy fried baby potatoes into the dressing and serve.

Okonomiyaki

This is my daughter's favorite dish.  She is the only one in my family that likes this dish so  much that I only make it when she is back. This time I made it because she is back for her summer holidays. I'm so happy that she is back for the long summer holidays. The family is now complete again. 

Ingredients

2 cups cabbage, finely sliced

• Oil
• Okonomiyaki Pancake Batter

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch sugar
• a pinch of baking powder ( I didn't use this, this time)
• slightly less than 1/4 cup of water
• 1 packed of yakisoba noodles ( I used Myojo Yaki-Soba noodles)
• 2-3 tablespoons of okonomi sauce (I used Otafuku Okonomi Sauce)
• 2 eggs
• 
  
• Okonomiyaki Toppings

• Okonomiyaki sauce
• Japanese mayonnaise (I used Kewpie mayo)
• Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
• Dried green seaweed powder (Aonori)
• Green onions, finely chopped
  Pickled ginger (I did not use this)

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder (if using).
2. Add the water and whisk the batter well. Leave it in the fridge for about 20 minutes to an hour.
3. Heat a skillet on medium low heat and grease it lightly with some cooking oil. Pour the batter and spread it out thinly.
4. Next top the batter with the finely sliced cabbage and spread the cabbage evenly so that it covers the okonomi pancake.
5. When the cabbage is half cooked, heat another pan on medium high heat. 
6. Once the pan is hot, add a little bit oil to the pan and add the noodles. Loosen the yaki soba noodle and stir fry for about a minute.
7. Next add about 2-3 tablespoon of the okonomi sauce and stir fry the noodle until it is fully cooked. 
8. Layer the noodle on top of the cabbage that is cooking on the skillet and spread it evenly over the cabbage.  
9. Heat another skillet or non-stick pan on medium low heat. Add in some oil and crack the two eggs into the skillet when the skillet is hot.
10. Spread the eggs out in a circle so that the diameter of the egg is close to the diameter of the pancake.
11. Immediate lift the pancake with cabbage and noodle and topple it over the half cooked eggs.  This can be quite tricky to do. I used two spatulas to lift the pancake. 
12. Use a spatula and gather any cabbage or noodle that has fallen out around the egg so that the pancake, cabbage, noodles and egg are all in a nice circle.
13. The eggs should have been cooked by now. Turn off the flame. Remove the skillet from the stove. Place a clean serving plate directly over the okonomiyaki and turn the skillet over so that you get the pancake at the bottom of the plate and the egg omelet on top of the serving plate.
14. Drizzle some okonomiyaki sauce over the egg omelet and spread it out evenly.
15. Pipe out some mayonnaise on top of the okonomiyaki and garnish it with the bonito flakes, aonori, green onions and pickled ginger. 

Thai Green Curry Chicken

Ingredients

500 grams chicken breast, sliced thinly

1/2 cup of coconut cream

1/2 cup of coconut milk

1/2 cup of coconut water

3 tablespoon green curry paste (I used Aroy-D green curry paste)

1 cup water

1 tablespoon Thai palm sugar

1 teaspoon Thai fish sauce

1/2 a red capsicum, sliced thinly

100 gms asparagus or any vegetable of your choice , cut lenghtwise

1/2 cup of Thai basil leaves

Directions

1.  In a pan or wok, heat the coconut cream on medium heat until it starts to boil. Keep stirring the 

     coconut cream until oil starts to separate.

2. Add the Thai green curry paste and keep stirring until the green curry paste is aromatic and has lost     its raw smell.

3. Next add in the sliced chicken breast meat and stir fry for about a minute.

4. Add in  a cup of water and mix well. Once the curry starts to boil, lower the heat to medium low     

   add in the coconut milk.

6. Add in the palm sugar and fish sauce, Adjust the saltiness and sweetness to your taste.

5. Once the curry starts to boil again add in the vegetables and give it a quick stir. 

6. Finally add in the basil leaves, stir the green curry again and remove it from the heat.

7. Serve the green curry with steaming hot Thai jasmine rice.

Coconut Filling or Inti Kelapa Gula Melaka

This is an accompaniment for Steamed Glutinous Rice or pulut.

Ingredients

300 gms gula melaka or palm sugar, chopped into small pieces
300 gms shredded coconut
1/2 cup of water
3 screwpine leaves or pandan leaves

Directions

1. In a pan on medium heat add the chopped gula melaka pieces and water.
2. Keep stirring until the gula melaka is completely dissolved in the water and starts to boil.
3. At this point add in the shredded coconut and pandan leaves and keep stirring until the          mixture turn thick.
4. Once cool, serve with steamed glutinous rice.

Pulut Inti

This is a delicious Malaysian dessert that I love. I have never bothered to make this myself because these types of desserts or nyonya kuih as they are normally called are readily available in Malaysia. So why bother making it at home right? Actually I never found a pulut inti that I really liked until I made it myself. You see I really like the glutinous rice to be firm shiny and aromatic. The ones that are sold in the shops and markets tend to be too mushy to my liking. My mom used to make pretty good pulut inti when I was little but she preferred the rice to be soft and not firm. She used to make this one in a while on Sunday morning for breakfast and I would eagerly wake up to the aromatic smell of pandan leaves coconut milk and glutinous rice steaming away... I'm so glad that I can make this myself now and most importantly in the way I like it....



Ingredients

1 cup pulut or Thai glutinous rice
1/3 cup coconut milk (thick)
1 tsp salt
1 pandan or screwpine leave cut into pieces

Method

1.  Wash and soak the glutinous rice in water for at least 2 hours or overnight
2.  Prepare a steamer with boiling water.
3.  Drain the glutinous rice completely and put it on the steamer tray.
4.  Steam the rice for about 10-15 minutes or until the glutinous rice turns translucent.
5.  In the mean while mix the coconut milk and salt.
6.  Put the pandan leave pieces into a bowl.
7.  Remove the glutinous rice from the steamer and put into the bowl with the pandan                   pieces. Keep the water boiling in the steamer.
8.  Next pour the coconut milk into the glutinous rice and mix well and steam the glutinous         rice again for the second time.
9.  After about 10  minutes or after the glutinous rice is completely dry and shiny, remove it 
      from the steamer.
10. The pulut or glutinous rice is now ready to serve. I ate this with the coconut inti. This can        also be served with spicy coconut filling. Recipe coming next.
11.  If you want a softer glutinous rice, add 1/2 cup of coconut milk instead of 1/3 cup.

Kaju Katli

This is a one of the Indian sweets that doesn't have ghee in it. At least in my recipe. My daughter doesn't really like Indian sweets but this sweet she loves.

Ingredients

4 cups powdered cashew nuts ( grind about  4/12 to 5 cups of raw cashews and then measure)

2 cups sugar

a pinch of salt

1 tsp powdered cardamom powder

Directions

1.  Boil sugar with a bit of water until it reaches soft ball stage (syrup should form a soft ball when poured into a bowl of water)

2. Add in cashew flour and cardamon powder and mix until mixture starts to gather together and forms a soft ball. Burfi should look wet and you should be able to pour it onto the parchment paper.

3. Pour mixture into a on-stick parchment paper and cover it with another piece of parchment paper

4. Taking a rolling pin and smooth out the kaju mixture or kaju burfi to about 5 mm thickness.

5. Cut out into desired shapes when the burfi is slightly hard.

6. Once the kaju katlis are cool, store in a airtight container.

Note:

1. Make sure that cashew nuts are at room temperature before grinding it into flour

2. Grind one cup of raw cashews at a time.

3. I used the Preethi mixer and used the small grinder. Grind the cashews at one go until the cashews turns into powder and the cashew flour looks a little heavy. Dont grind until the cashew turns oily.

4. If the kaju burfi or kaju katli is too dry, you can crumble the burfis and add a little water and heat the burfi again until it becomes a soft ball.

Cream Cheese Wontons

I always look to Fridays and I always like to celebrate Fridays with my family. Last day of school, last day of work, last day for everything  for the week and two full days of holidays. This Friday I was planning on going to the mall with my family, do some shopping and have some chinese food. At the last minute, I thought to myself why not have the food at home and then watch a movie at home. I had also just finished watching 2 videos on how to make fried loh mien and cheese wontons. Great, we will have Panda Express at home! I made cream cheese wontons and fried noodles. The cream cheese wontons tasted so great and it such a simple recipe. I used regular cream cheese but the next time I do this, I will make it with low fat cream cheese, because I can't stop at one.

Ingredients

1 block of cream cheese, at room temperature

1 tsp sugar

some chopped scallions and some chopped red chillies

some wonton wrapper

oil for deep frying

Directions

1. Mix cream cheese and sugar with a whisk or spatula until it is smooth.

2. Mix in the chopped scallions and red chillies

3. Wet the edges of a wonton wrapper and put about 1 tsp of cream cheese mixture in the middle. 

4. Fold the edges of the wonton wrappers and deep fry it on medium high heat.

Note:

Don't put too much cheese filling in the wonton wrapper otherwise the filling might ooze out while frying.

Sugar Syrup Consistency for Indian Sweets and Desserts

Sometimes, well most of the time I have a difficult time getting the right consistency for sugar syrup when making Indian sweets. I used to fail so often that I decided to get a sugar thermometer. I also a found a website that showed the different sugar syrup stages in Indian desserts with the equivalent temperature in Fahrenheit. I have not failed after using this table.

Temperature Sugar  Density Candy Making Stage Tar Stage  Application 212º F 0% Water boiling point 220º F - 222º F 70% Pearl Single Thread Absorption 235º F - 240º F 85% Softball Two thread Fudge, Gajak 242º F - 248º F 87% Firm ball 250º F - 268º F 92% Hard ball Three thread Icing  270º F - 290º F 95% Soft Crack Brittle, Chikki 300º F - 310º F 99% Hard Crack 320º F 100% Melting point Caramelize 350º F 100% Burnt

Boondhi Laddoo

When I went back to home for summer holidays, I asked my mom is she was still having any use for the boondhi maker. She said that she had no use for it, in fact she was so happy that she could give it to me. Now that I have the boondhi maker, I tried to make some boondhi laddoos since it is one of Mav's favorite and also mine :).  I using the recipe from Bhavna's kitchen with some slight addition. I like my laddoos with some cumin and black pepper. I used to buy laddoos from a punjabi lady back home at she used to sell these laddoos with melon seeds, cumin and black pepper. I remember now that I ordered laddoos from this lady for my brother's wedding too.

Ingredients

1 cup of besan or chickpea flour
1/2 cup or more water
2 teaspoons melted ghee
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
1 tablespoon melon seeds, slightly dry roasted
1 tablespoon pistachio nuts, chopped
some black pepper and cumin (optional)

for the sugar syrup

1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of water or just enough to cover the surface of the water

Directions
1. Mix besan with ghee in a bow. Gradually add with water until you get a thick pouring consistency.
2. Leave the besan batter aside.
3. Next prepare the sugar syrup. Boil sugar and water until you get a one thread consistency or if you measure it with a sugar thermometer, it should read anywhere between 220º F - 222º F.  Please refer to my post on sugar syrup consistency for indian desserts.
4. Remove the sugar syrup from the leave it aside.
5. Next heat a pan with cooking oil under medium heat.
6. With the boondhi maker over the hot oil, pour the besan batter into the boondhi maker and gently  shake the boondhi maker. Make sure that the boodhi maker is just above the hot oil. Fry the boondhi and drain them on a kitchen towel. Continue this step with the remaining mixture.
7. Add the fried boondhis to the hot sugar syrup. Add cardamom powder, melon seeds and pistachio nuts. You can also add the black pepper and cumin if using.
8. Leave the boondhis to soak in the syrup for about 20 - 30 minutes. Once the boondhis are warm enough to handle, grease hands with some ghee and shape the boondhis into small balls. 

Note. I had a hard time trying to shape the boondhis, so I roughly shaped the boondhis and then I wrapped the laddoos in a greased plastic sheet and shaped them into smoother balls.

Rempeyek Kacang Ikan Bilis

One of my Indonesian friend recommended an Indonesian restaurant that serves authentic Indonesian food. We decided to give this restaurant a try and one Saturday, we made a visit to this restaurant. The food was OK. Not too authentic for my taste buds though but it was fine. I ordered some snacks as appetizers while we were waiting for our food and this Indonesian snack was so light, crispy and savory. These snacks are called rempeyek in Malaysia and I believe they are called the same in Indonesia as well. Rempeyek are savory rice snacks which are topped with peanuts and dried anchovies or ikan bilis.

Ingredients

A: Sift together 100 gms rice flour (thai rice flour) 25g tapioca flour 25g Hoen Kwee flour 2 tsps Knorr Chicken Powder ½ tsp salt or to taste
B: Wet Ingredients, mix together
200 gms water or more to get a watery consistency ½ cup coconut milk
C: Grind together 4-5 cloves of garlic 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp fennel 1 tbsps coriander seeds 10 dry chillies
D: Toppings Peanuts, raw Ikan Bilis
Directions

1. Mix A, B and C together. Add more water if needed to get a thin batter. If batter is thick, rempeyek will take longer to cook and will not be that crispy. 2. Heat a wok with oil under medium heat and make sure that the sides of the wok is also coated with oil. 3. Take a ladle of batter and add some peanuts and ikan bilis to the ladle full of batter. 4. Pour the batter along the side of the wok, just above the hot oil. 5. Let the batter fry for a while before pushing the batter that is sticking to the sides of the wok into the oil. 6. Fry until the peanuts are cooked and the batter is crispy. 7. Drain the rempeyek upright on paper towels, to absorb the extra oil. 8. When all the rempeyeks are fried, heat an oven to 300 F and put the rempeyek in the hot oven for just 5 minutes. This is my way to ensure that the rempeyeks are not oily.

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Peanut Cookies

This cookie is simply delicious and is everyone's favorite. What make this cookie different from other peanut cookies is that I add some rose essence to the cookie and this is what makes it stand out.

Ingredients

200g roasted peanuts - grind until fine
200g red rose flour/ all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
100g icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine salt (blend with some flour from the 200g of flour)
100g peanut/corn oil
1 teaspoon rose essence Egg wash:
1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp of water (I didn't use this)

Directions

1. Sift flour, salt, baking powder and icing sugar together.
2. Add in the ground peanuts and mix well.
3. pour in the peanut/corn oil and essence and mix until well. If mixture is too crumbly, add a
    little more oil. Dough should be soft enough to form a ball when rolled between your palms
4. Roll cookie dough into small balls and place it on a baking tray.
5. Brush cookies with egg wash and bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until the bottom of the cookie is slightly brown.

Crunchy Cauliflower 65

I finally found a great recipe for crunchy cauliflower 65. This recipe is from Vahchef.  The cauliflower turned out really crunchy and not that oily at all. I made this last Saturday and it was a great hit with the family, We are not usually vegetarians on Saturdays but since my daughter is on a vegetarian fast I did not have the heart to cook non veg all the time. So this Saturday we had really delicious vegetarian food.

Ingredients

500gms cauliflower

Mix together
1 tablespoon of ginger garlic paste
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder
1 teaspoon kashmiri chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika (optional but it gives a deep red color)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 cup of cornstarch
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon oil
1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves
1/4 cup chopped curry leaves
salt to taste

cooking oil for deep frying

Directions

1. Wash cauliflower and cut in to florets.
2. In a bowl add the cornstarch and the all purpose flour and mix it well.
3. Next add in all dry spices, ginger garlic paste, chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves and oil and mix well.
4. Add a tablespoon of water at a time to the cornstarch mixture to make a thick batter so that the batter can thickly coat the cauliflowers. Add salt to taste.
5. Add all the cauliflowers to the thick masala batter and mix well so that each cauliflower is well coated with the batter.
6. Heat the cooking oil on medium high.  Deep fry the cauliflowers in hot oil until the cauliflowers are cooked and crunchy.
7. Remove from the oil and drain on paper towels.
8. Serve with hot rice and dhall curry or sambar.

Korean Fish Cake Eomuk

My daughter is off to college and I am missing her so much. I just wished that she was somewhere close enough for me to visit her over the weekend.  Feeling a bit empty inside and after cross mad with the boys for messing up the house, as usual, i started visiting some of my favorite cooking Youttube channels. I came across this fish cake recipe in Maangchi's youtube channel.  I had some of the main ingredients in my freezer and all I had to do was modify the recipe a bit based on what I had at home and fix this before the dad comes home from work. It took something like 15 minutes to make the fish paste and another 15 minutes to fry it. Pretty quick right. It tasted really good.

Ingredients

1/2 lb cod fish fillet or hake or any white fleshed fish fillet
1/2 lb shelled prawns and deveined
1/4 cup white onion
1 large egg white
2 garlic pips
1 tsp white pepper powder
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp sesame oil

Directions

1. Put all the ingredients into the blender and blitz it for about 2 mins or until all the ingredients come to a smooth paste.
2. Heat up some cooking oil on medium heat. Take about 1/3 a cup of fish paste and flatten it over the back of an oiled spatula.
3. Start rolling the fish paste from the wider edge a bit by bit until it form a long roll and drop it gently into the oil.
4. Fry until the fish cake is cooked and evenly browned. Drain any excess oil on a paper towel. The fish cake will float when it is cooked.
5. The fish cake tastes good on its own without any condiments.

Home Made Ramen Noodles from Scratch

I have always wanted to make my own noodles from  scratch. I finally had the time and mood to make it today. I got this recipe "Not Quite Nigella" and I thought that I would give this a try. I bought a bottle of lye water or Kansui when I went back to Malaysia for the summer holidays and this could not be a better time to use my kansui. The noodles turned out better than I had expected. The yellow color of the noodles is from the lye water. The noodles were springy and chewy. I will make stir fried ramen noodles for dinner today.

Ingredients

2 cups bread flour
1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 cup of lukewarm water
1 tsp of lye water

Directions

1. Add the bread flour and kosher salt into the mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix it on low speed for         about 1 minute.
2. Mix the lukewarm water with the lye water and add it slowly to the flour.Keep kneading on the 
     lowest speed to combine. Add more water is necessary to form a dough and knead until you get a     
     smooth and elastic dough. It took me around 4-5 minutes
3. Wrap the dough in a cling wrap and leave it to rest for about 2-3 hours.
4. The dough should look soft and elastic after resting for about 3 hours.
5. Using a pasta machine, lightly flour the top of the machine and pass the dough through the widest 
     setting 1 and gradually move it to setting no. 3.
6. Now the dough is thin enough to be made into ramen noodles. Prepare a tray dusted with flour and 
     pass through the dough  the spaghetti setting.
7. Put a pot of water to boil and prepare a large bowl with cold iced water.
8. Put a small handful of noodles into the boiling water and cook it for 1 minute.
9. Remove and place it in the cold water and drain.
10. Rub a little oil on the noodles to prevent the noodles from sticking together.

The noodles are now ready for stir frying or you can even put into hot soup. Add some fish cake or Eomuk and it will taste amazing.

Sweet Coconut Appams or Thengai Paal Appam without Yeast

Appams with sweet coconut milk

I just love eating the sweet thengai paal (coconut milk) appams. My mom makes the best appams I have ever eaten. She makes it so well, just like all the rest of the food she makes. There is no yeast in this appam. My mom said that when she was very young, her aunt (Periamma) used to make appams with baking soda but would not give the recipe to anyone. When her aunt made appams,she would add some roasted skinned mung beans on the appam. My mom used to make these type of special appams when I was young and until today whenever I make appams I add the roasted mung beans to my appams. Sadly I am the only one in my family who likes the appam this way. My dad loves to have an egg on the appam and he used to eat his appam with fish curry!

Looks at the tiny air cavity caused by the fermentation process

Appam My Way..with brown sugar, coconut cream and roasted skinned mung beans..Yummm

 Ingredients

1 1/2 cups rice
1/2 cup of cooked rice

1/2 cup coconut water, leave it in a warm place overnight if available to aid in the fermenting (my mom never used this)
1/2 teaspoon salt
tbps of dosa batter (optional, help the fermentation process)

1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
Sweet coconut Milk

for the sweet coconut milk
1 cup of coconut milk (either fresh,from the box or can)
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of sugar
a pinch of salt
some daun pandan (screwpine leaves) or cardamom powder.

Batter ready to be fermented overnight or for at least 8 hours 

After overnight fermentation, batter is full of tiny air bubbles

The batter consistency

Appams cooking in appam pans

Directions

1. Wash the rice and soak the rice with the cooked rice overnight for about 2 hours. Make sure that the water is more than enough to cover the rice.
2. The next day, grind the soaked rice, cooked rice, coconut water(if using) and water to a smooth paste. 3. Appam batter should not be as thick as dosa batter, so add water a little at a time until you get a smooth batter which is a little runny. I will add a video to this post the next time I make appams.
3. Add a little bit of salt to the batter and mix the batter thoroughly with your hand until the batter is well mixed.
4. Place the batter in a warm place to ferment. Sometime when the weather is cold, I will place my batter in the oven with the oven light on.
5.  Once the batter is well fermented, take out the batter and the sugar and baking soda and mix well. Add more water or diluted coconut milk if needed if the batter is too thick. Getting the right batter consistency comes with practice.
6. Keep the batter for about an hour before making the appams.
7. In the mean time prepare the sweet coconut milk. Heat the coconut milk with some water, sugar, salt and daun pandan (screwpine leaves). Dont let the milk boil. Adjust the sweetness to your liking.
8. Heat an appam pan with some oil and pour a ladle of batter in the pan and swirl the pan until the sides are coated with the batter. Cover and let it cook on medium low heat for about five minutes or so. If the appam is fully cooked, the top of the appam will bounce back when touched. The sides should be golden brown and crispy.
9. Serve the appams with the sweet coconut milk and enjoy.