Vatteppam/Vattayappam – Kerala’s Queen of steamed rice cakes - ICC Cooking Challenge March 2011

A sweet and spongy steamed rice cake with fragrant  saffron, cardamom and  coconut .Finished with  a garnish of raisins and fried cashew nuts.

This post is for the Indian cooking challenge by Srivalli of Spicing your life, recipe supplied by Shn of Mishmash

Ingredients:

To Grind:

1 cup raw-rice/Pachari or Idli-Ponni rice, soaked for 6-8 hours
¾ cup freshly grated coconut
2 tbsp cooked rice
½ cup water or enough to grind the above ingredients to make a batter consistency similar to idli batter

To Proof yeast:

½ tsp active dry yeast ( I use Fleischmann’s active dry yeast)
1/3 cup water
2tsp sugar

To Make Thari Kurukku/Rice porridge: (Use only 4tbsp of this paste/porridge)

1 ½ to 2 tbsp coarse ground paste
Around 1/3 to ½ cup water

To sweeten and flavor:

½ cup sugar ( to taste)
10-12 cardamom/elakkaya crushed/powdered ( Add as per taste and pungency of the spice)
½ tbsp cashew nuts
1 ½ tbsp ghee
Few saffron strands

Method:

1. Grind rice in a blender, adding just enough water, to operate the mixer.
2.When ground rice reaches a coarse texture, remove the required quantity mentioned under, “To Make Thari Kurukku/Rice porridge” and keep aside.
3.Add coconut to the remaining ground rice in blender and grind thoroughly to a fine batter. Towards the end, add cooked rice and grind again.
4. Leave this mixture to cool till it reaches room tempearature in the blender.
5. Warm the water in a microwave for 15 seconds. Add sugar and yeast; dissolve both the ingredients in this warm water and keep the mixture in a warm place for 15-20 minutes, or until it inflates and foams, creating a
‘dome of foam’, on top of the mixture.
6. Prepare the Thari Kurukku/Rice porridge by heating a pan and adding the couple of spoonfuls of coarse ground rice, kept aside earlier and water; bring it to a boil and keep stirring in low-medium heat until it is fully cooked and reaches the consistency of a thick paste /porridge and turn off the stove and keep aside till it is completely cool.
7.Take about 4 tablespoons of Thari Kurukku/Rice porridge and add it to the rice and coconut batter in the blender.Blend one more time for one more time .
8.Add yeast mixture and pulse one or two times just to blend everything well.
9.Pour the entire batter to a steel/glass bowl and let it ferment in a warm place for about 4-6 hours or overnight, depending on the weather zone you are in. Pick a stainless steel or glass bowl big enough to hold double the quantity of batter as during the fermentation process, the batter rises well and it should not over flow from the bowl.
10.When batter is doubled and fermented, add sugar and stir gently and mix and again let it ferment for another 1 ½ to 2 hours.
11.Heat ghee in a small pan and roast cashew nuts till golden brown and raisins till they plump up fully.
12.Just before steaming, add crushed/powdered cardamom, ghee roasted nuts and raisins to the batter.
13.For steaming, heat some water in a pressure cooker; grease a 6 inch round pan/or cake tin with some ghee or oil.
14.Pour the prepared batter and fill till half of the pan/cake tin; when it starts to steam, place that flat plate with holes, which comes with the cooker and on top of it, gently drop the batter filled pan/cake tin and close the cooker tightly with lid and its rubber in place (do not keep the weight/whistle) and let it steam cook for about 20 -30 minutes in medium heat.
15.Remove the cooker from the heat and carefully open the lid and insert a knife or tail of the spoon and if it comes out clean .Lift the pan/cake tin from the cooker and leave it to completely cool
16.To remove from tin run knife by the side of the pan and gently separate the steamed cake/ vatteppam /Vattayappam from the edges of the pan.
17.Slowly try to lift off the cake with a spatula or anything that has a flat surface and it will come off easily; alternatively cut it into squares in the pan and gently lift of squares with a spatula and place on serving dish.
18. Garnish with remaining fried cashews , saffron strands and grated coconut.

NB- The red colouring on the vatteppam was from the red colouring that was from some coloured almond flakes I tossed on the cake and saffron.
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