How to make Idiyappam - Step by Step recipe

Hello all! I have been on a good holiday the past week. The longest I have ever been away from this blog but it was a really fun and interesting time at my native place. This is the first time I am being a part of this kind of a function where we offer tribute to our forefathers. It is a 3 day function in total, the first day is the temple-visit day , the entire family tree starting from my father-in-law's great grandfather till the present generation gathered at our kuzha dheivam temple , prayed for good health wealth and happiness and got back to our 100 year old typical chettinadu home. All the ladies then got busy with the prep work for the next day feast that is to be made for around 400-500 people. :). I got to see and also give them a hand in grinding the flour the traditional way [stone method] and cooking at such a huge scale. The cooking continued the second day, making pongal , frying paniyarams in the viragu adupu. I could only help with 4-5 rounds of paniyaram with the viragu adupu, my eyes started burning from the flame, ah I wonder how they used this every other day hose days! :O. That evening we had the pooja and relished on the feast for dinner. :)

The next day was slotted for the auction that took place in our home. A lot of people offer many things such as fruits, silver ware, clothes, toys etc  for the pooja. Once the pooja is over, all these things are sold in an auction. The funds collected from this auction is then given to the temple for its maintainence and upkeep and other related kovil activity. It was fun to see a live auction ;). So all in all it was a very unique holiday experience with the full swing traditional activity and having good food 4 times a day minus the scorching heat we had to put up with! And before you ask, I dont have pictures to share with, I kept cursing myself so much that I forgot to take the camera. :( . And yeah I had paneer soda, I love paneer soda and never miss it when i visit my native town.

So with this update I am going to share a recipe , one that is very close to my heart and that is Idiappam with step-wise pictures.

Ingredients

Serves - 2
Prep time - 30 min
Cook time - 15 min

To make the dough for Idiyappam

Idiyappam flour - 2 cups

*** I get idiyappam flour from my native place where we have our chettinadu shops which sell this. These days there are many brands that sell idiyappam flour , you could use one of them. Anil idiyappam flour is one such brand. ***

Water -  2 cups +/- few tbsp
Salt - 1 Tsp

For tempering

Curd - 1 Tbsp
Water - 1 Cup
Salt - 1 Tsp
Curry Leaves - 2 Sprigs
Dry Red Chilli - 3
Mustard - 1 Tbsp
Urad Dal - 1 Tbsp
Hing - a generous pinch
Oil - 3 Tbsp

How do you do it

To make the dough

First bring two cups of water with 1 tsp salt to boil and switch of flame. Take the flour in a bowl and add this boiled water slowly and mix with spatula. Bring the flour together and knead to get a slightly sticky soft dough. I needed 2 cups plus few tbsp of water to make the dough. You can see the dough in the picture below. The idiyappam press is also shown, this press is quite easy and not like the traditional wooden kattai where its difficult to press the dough for making the idiyappam.

Next divide the dough into 4 equal parts and shape one part of the dough like a banana and put it inside the steel tumbler and fit the equipment and keep it ready to press the idiyappam.

I use my Idli chatti method to steam idiyappams. I take a wet cloth and line the idli plate with it and press the idiyappam on top of it and steam.Rotate the handle as shown below and see the idiyappam falling out of the press. Do this until all the dough inside the press is over. You can fill the press again with dough and repeat until your idli plate is full. For 2 cups of flour, I had to steam two plates of idiyappam.

Place this plate on top of idli vessel containing boiling water and close the lid. Steam for 3-5 minutes on high flame. Do not over steam, if you do, the idiyappam will not be soft in texture. When you touch and break the idiyappam , it should not be sticky - this means its cooked enough.

This is the steamed idiyappam.

To temper the idiyappam

Tear into medium length the steamed idiyappam and keep ready. Mix 1 tbsp of curd in 1 cup of water, add salt and mix well. Dip all the steamed idiyappam in this curd -water mix, remove it immediately and place it in a colander. [ Don't skip this step, this will ensure your idiyappam is very soft in texture while tempering]. Heat oil in a kadai. Add hing, mustard, urad dal and let it splutter. Add the broken red chilli and curry leaves. Now add the idiyappam , required salt and stir well on low flame until the tempering is mixed well. Switch off flame.

Serve hot with chettinadu sambar :)


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