Idiyappam/String Hoppers

This is yet another delicacy in a South Indian household. Found in all restaurants in Kerala and Tamil Nadu as a breakfast or tiffin item, its a very simple, healthy and comfort food. Steamed and with hardly a drizzle of oil in it, it is ideal for small kids and adults.

In olden days people used to wash, soak and dry rice and then grind it into fine powder and then dry roast it to make these. Another version is to wet grind soaked rice, make a loose batter and then cook it on low flame till it thickens to form a dough. This dough is then pressed through the mould and steamed.

Alternatively, you can wet grind the rice and make an idli batter like batter, then make idlis out of it and then press those idlis through an idiyappam  maker stand and your idiyappams are ready. No need to steam them again. Make sure you press it out when the idlis are quite warm. But nowadays, you get readymade idiyappam flour in almost all supermarkets and this makes our life really easy.

Ingredients:

• Roasted rice flour 1 cup
• Salt as required
• Boiling water 1 cup plus 1-2 tbsp
• Oil 1 tsp or less
• Grated coconut 2 tbsp (optional)

Method:

• Mix flour and salt in a bowl and add boiling water into it till all the dry flour gets wet. Keep the bowl closed for 10 minutes.
• Apply little oil and knead into a soft and smooth dough.
• Take an idiyappam maker, wash it and grease it with little oil

• Use the finest mesh and fill it with dough.
• Take a greased idli stand or a perforated plate and apply some oil on it and press the dough through the idiyappam maker like the way you make “sev”. Steam it for 10 minutes or till it is cooked well.
• Cool and serve with any of these ideal traditional combinations – potato stew, chicken stew, kadala curry, coconut milk or kurma.

Notes:

• The amount of water will  vary from flour to flour. So add accordingly. Also keep the dough soft and moist. If it is too hard, it would be very difficult to press through the idiyappam maker. Also make sure the water is boiling hot and not just lukewarm or hot.
• You can add little grated coconut while steaming for added taste.
• You can give tadka of mustard seeds, curry leaves and dry red chillies and add the idiyappam to it and mix gently to get a different version.
• To these you can add sauteed vegetables, spices, lime juice and make various dishes like veg sev, lime sev, coconut sev etc. These go well with coconut-chutney-1 and coconut-chutney-4
• Roasted rice flour meant for idiyappam is available in most of the super markets. Make sure the flour is very fine.
• This dish goes well with any spicy veg or nonveg gravy.