Preparation Time : 40 minutes

Cooking Time : 10 minutes for filling and 5 minutes for each envelope appam

Serving : 8-10 members

Description

Savoury stuffed appam. The recipe for this dish was borrowed from my mothers cook book panorama home recipes of Kerala which was gifted to her by her friend. A treasure trove of home -style recipes. To me, recipes have always been more than instructions about how to make a great dish. Having this recipe in hand for quite sometime and being in my to try list as well, Every time something or the other just kept me away from the dish.My quest to make non-deep fried dishes for Iftar this year made me do this dish but with a little changes of using lesser oil than what the original recipe demanded. Once you have the pancakes and filling ready, you just have to assemble them together, shallow fry and cut and serve the pillow Drool worthy treat. Tadaa it’s ready.The layers and the crisp outer cover sure does tempt you a lot.It’s the same old thin pancakes and filling we make at home just like how our mothers would make but with a wicked clever, knock out spin of twist in assembling that gives this dish a oomph factor. This dish is a must try for all the home ministers.

Ingredients for pancakes / appam

Method for pancakes / appam

1. Mix maida , eggs , salt and milk together .
2. Add water little by little according to the required amount to get a nice smooth thin batter . Keep aside .

Ingredients for filling

Method for filling

1. Cook washed and cleaned keema with coriander powder , turmeric powder and salt to taste .
2. Heat oil in a non – stick kadai . Fry the chopped onions to brown adding ginger garlic paste . Sauté to crisp .
3. Top with green chillies , garam masala powder , cooked keema and chopped coriander leaves .
4. Fry for two minutes or until dry and set aside .

Ingredients for Maida paste

Method for Maida paste

1. Mix all the above mentioned ingredients together to get a thick consistency paste with out lumps . Set aside .

How to proceed

1. Make pancakes with the loose batter of 3 sizes ( small , big and bigger ) in a non stick pan . ( i used 3 different sized non – stick pans for the 3 sized pancakes ) you get 3 pancakes in each size for the amount of batter mentioned in the recipe . Cook the pancakes on both the sides and set aside .
2. Place the small pancake . Spread 1 1/2 tablespoon of filling in the Center in the shape of a square . Apply maida paste all around the filling till the edge of the pancakes . Fold the maida paste applied four sides in wards to form a small envelope .
3. Take the big pancake . ( the middle sized pancake ) place 2 tablespoon of filling in the Center and spread evenly into a square shape leaving the edges of the pancake . Apply maida paste apart from the filled portion up to edges on all four sides . Place the 1st small envelope on top of the square filling and fold like the first envelop from all four sides inwards .
4. Do the same with the 3rd ( bigger ) pancake . Each time placing the previous folded envelope on top of the square filling and folding the sides of the maida paste applied four sides in wards to get a bigger envelope .
5. Heat a tawa with 1 tablespoon of oil and place the sealed side down and press to make it firm and crisp . Turn over and press the other side as well to get a golden colour crisp cover . With a help of a tong , carefully turn it over on all sides and fry to golden colour and crisp .
6. Remove from tawa . Cut into four triangles and serve hot with tomato sauce . You get a crisp outer layer with soft inner layer of pancakes filled in between with the filling .

Notes

1. Vegetarians can omit the eggs in the batter . Substitute with vegetable filling . Follow the same recipe and go ahead for the vegetarian version .
2. I have added mixed vegetables ( carrots , beans , green peas , capsicum and cabbage ) along with the chicken keema for the filling . Just to add more vegetables in our diet as its ramadan and no other way than to cheat every one at home to get some veggies into their tummy .
3. You could dot the pancakes with ghee while cooking on both sides .( I skipped using ghee , so my pancakes were oil free pancakes made in non – stick pans .)
4. You could pan fry each envelope in oil for every envelope making sure each envelope has a good sealed sides and golden crisp cover . Start with small pancake and make sure each pancake gets bigger than the other , resulting in crisp golden layers outside as well as inside . ( I just pan fried the outer last layer alone wanting to avoid the extra oil content in the dish )
5. I made just 3 different sizes of pancakes , resulting in 3 envelopes to be folded . Maximum you could do with 4 envelopes . ( I tried with 4 but it was too massive and huge )
6. In total other than the oil used for the filling , I have just used 1 tablespoon of oil to fry each 3 layered envelopes . You could oil spray and fry and reduce the 1 tablespoon of oil that I used as well .