Mary, who writes the delicious blog, Mary Mary Culinary was our August Daring Cooks’ host. Mary chose to show us how delicious South Indian cuisine is! She challenged us to make Appam and another South Indian/Sri Lankan dish to go with the warm flat bread. When I saw this month’s challenge I got really excited: after making pasta from scratch for last month’s challenge, it was time to learn something new as we had never eaten appam before! And I can tell you that we were all (including our little girls) quite impressed by this coconut and rice flat bread. As many of you already know, my husband is of Indian origin. What you probably do not know is that he is from Goa and Goa is considered a “South Indian State”. Goan cuisine is quite unique and different than many of its surrounding states, even though it still uses lots of local spices and coconut. This is because Goa used to be a Portuguese colony (which means Portuguese cuisine influenced Goan cuisine a lot) and many of its inhabitants are Catholic (which means that Goa’s most famous dishes are non-veg and even made of beef and pork). You can read a little more about Goan cuisine here. So, for the “curry component” of the challenge I could not choose anything else but a traditional Goan dish. I decided to make ambotik, a fish curry traditionally made with shark (or angel fish as it is called here), freshly scraped coconut and tamarind. It is slightly spicy, but its main characteristic is the sourness given by the tamarind and vinegar. I did not have a recipe for this dish, so I looked it up on the internet and found a version that convinced my husband (I had never eaten ambotik before). We made a few changes and added some goraka to it. It came out great and it was the perfect dish to eat with appam!
APPAM
Recipe taken from the Daring Cook’s Challenge (which was adapted from Aparna at My Diverse Kitchen)
Ingredients: (makes about 15)
1 ½ cups (360 ml/300 gm/10½ oz) raw rice
1 ½ teaspoons (7½ ml/5 gm) active dry yeast
2 teaspoons (10 ml/9 gm) sugar
½ cup (120 ml) of coconut water or water, room temperature
1 ½ tablespoons (22½ ml/18 gm) cooked rice
½ teaspoon (2½ ml/3 gm) salt
½ cup (120 ml) thick coconut milk (from the top of an unshaken can)
Soak the raw rice in 4 to 5 cups of water for at least 3 hours. I soaked it overnight, to save some time the following day.
Dissolve the sugar in the coconut water or plain water and add the yeast. Set aside in a warm area for 10-15 minutes, until very frothy.
Drain the rice and grind it in a blender with the yeast mixture to make a smooth batter. You can add a bit of extra water if needed, but I did not. Add the cooked rice, and grind/blend to combine well. You can see that it is not completely smooth, but very thick – that’s about right.
Pour into a large bowl, cover and leave in a warm place for 8-12 hours. You not only want the mixture to rise and collapse, but to ferment. When it is ready, it will have a slightly sour and distinctly yeasty smell. Don’t worry – they are very mild tasting when cooked!
Add the coconut milk and salt, and a bit of water if necessary, so that you have a batter that is just a bit thicker than milk. Notice how it bubbles after you add the coconut milk. I recommend test-cooking one before thinning the batter.
Heat your pan over medium heat. Wipe a few drops of oil over it using a paper towel. Stir the batter and pour in 3-4 tablespoons, depending on the size of the pan. Working quickly, hold the handle(s) and give the pan a quick swirl so that the batter comes to the top edge. Swirl once only, as you want the edges to be thin and lacy.
Cover the pan and cook for about 2 minutes. Uncover and check. The center should have puffed up a bit, and will be shiny, but dry to the touch.
When ready, loosen the edges with a small spatula and serve immediately. These need to be served hot out of the pan.
Make another, and another… until the batter finishes.
NOTE: The leftover batter can be refrigerated for a day or 2.
AMBOTIK – A GOAN FISH CURRY
Recipe adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor and… my husband!
Ingredients: (for 4 people)
500 gms fish, cut into ½ inch thick slices (shark, pomfret, mackerel or king fish)
For the marinade
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt
For the masala
1 tbsp coriander seeds, dry roasted
1 tsp cumin seeds, dry roasted
1 cup coconut, scraped
8 red chillies
1 inch ginger
8 to 10 cloves garlic
2 inch cinnamon
5 cloves
2 tbsp white vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
Water
For the gravy
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 medium onion, chopped
2 tbsp tamarind concentrate and 4 tsps sugar (to taste – it has to taste sweet, sour and spicy)
3 goraka pieces
1 green chilli, slit (optional)
Salt
Start by scraping the coconut. You can buy it already scraped in some Indian stores, or scrape it yourself with a coconut scraper. You can freezer whatever scraped coconut you do not need for the ambotik by putting it in a freezer bag.
Marinate the fish with the salt and turmeric powder for 10 to 15 minutes.
In the meantime, dry roast the coriander seeds and cumin seeds by putting them in a frying pan and roasting them on the stove.
Now, you can prepare the masala. Put the scarped coconut, red chillies, roasted cumin seeds, roasted coriander seeds, ginger, garlic, cloves, cinnamon, vinegar and a bit of water into a mixer and grind to a very fine paste.
Heat the vegatble oil in a pan. Add the chopped onion and sauté till golden brown.
Add the masala and cook on high heat for two minutes stirring continuously.
Add three cups of water and bring the gravy to a boil.
Add slit green chilli and stir (optional). Add the marinated fish pieces and simmer for five minutes.
Add the tamarind concentrate, sugar to taste (if required) and the goraka pieces. Add salt to taste.
Stir gently and cook on low heat for five minutes. Serve hot with appam or steamed rice.
On a completely different note, I have submitted the Chocolate covered honey and mixed nut nougat recipe for this month’s challenge over at FoodFrenzy. This month’s ingredient is honey. If you liked the recipe, please take a minute and vote for it here. The voting is on between July 15th and 24th. Thank you very much! <3
And… Happy Independence Day to all my Pakistani friends for the 14th and to all my Indian friends for the 15th! ♥
Ho tanti amici che sono stati, continuano a andare o sognano di arrivare un giorno a Goa… è anche un mio sogno andare in India un giorno… per ora mi consolo con la cucina indiana, e le tue ricette sono fra le migliori! Le foto sono super belle, la quintultima della serie è da libro!
This looks seriously delicious! I love appam!
Love the pictures and presentation. Absolutely stunning!
As you always do, you rocked this challenge…beautiful photos and a delicious result!
your curry looks perfect, i will have to try it after the success of your lamb korma.
What a great challenge! I love that bread so much! I’ve only had it when I’ve gone out for Ethiopian food and it is amazing! I’ll have to try making it at home now!
Had to stop in today after your comment on Nami’s interview. Wow, wow! I was trying to think of a side bread to go with a curry dish I am going to make later in the week and the appam sounds delish and something unique that we have never had before. Thanks for the beautiful step-by-steps – I know I can do this too.
Wow! What a challenge to take on! It came out beautiful!
You did such a great job on this challenge, Manu! Your curry looks perfectly delicious and all your photos are stunning!
I fell in love with your coconut shell idea and your curry ever since I saw it on the forum…
Amazing job as always Manu..I can’t wait to try your recipe
The appam looks great, and the curry too, but I don’t eat fish, do you think that it would be good with tofu?
ciao
Alessandra
Ciao Alessandra! I have never tried it with tofu, but I think it would work nicely! If you try it, please let me know as it is always a great options for vegetarians!
Your photos are gorgeous and I’m so glad that you and your husband enjoyed this challenge! Thanks for participating.
I’ve eaten plenty of appams but never made them before! What an interesting challenge!
delicious looking combination with appam looks wonderful we don’t put cooked rice but make it similar. In Sri lanka we call it hoppers
if you like check out the recipe in my site as well and try it
regards
that looks just amazing! i loveeeee curries! this i’ve got to try!
Wow super exotic and it looks delish! Great job Manu!
wow- looks well done , to make an Indian dish so well is truly praise-worthy !
Ohh!! The cury is tempting me!!
I want!! Haha ha
congratz for the top 9 on Foodbuzz manu… I will make this when I have a chance , tq for sharing the recipe with us dear!
Amazing Manu!!! I saw your top 9 first (sorry I’m a little behind in reading your posts). CONGRATS!!! I was going to say I love your bowl, then I realized it’s a coconut shell! How cool is that! I love this entire recipe. I’m not familiar with this but I know I’ll clean everything off the plate without any break! Looks wonderful!
Manu, this dish leaves me without words…. it’s fantastic!
The appam looks great. The goan fish curry looks even better. I fear this will have me craving fish curries until I go ahead and make this
I went to an Indian Independence celebration last night. The food was an epic failure…next time, you’re cooking for me
Congrats on making the Top 9, Manu. I love to eat appams with a good curry and yours is an extremely well-executed and presented dish. I love the step by step for the appam, it’s motivating me to make my own at home!
This looks so delicious
appam is my kind of comfort food 
Congrats on your top 9!
I’m really attracted to those appam: they almost look like crepes… I’m wondering how they would fare, if I treated I filled them and baked them like a crepe….
I think you could try! And they’d be delicious even sweet!
Manu, you are full of surprises. What a fabulous dish! Love the different elements and particularly love spice with fish. Bookmarking this to try! (I’ve had rubbish internet for the past week, but looking forward to catching up with your Christmas in July series when normal service is resumed)
P.S. congrats on your series of Top 9s – very well deserved!
Congratulations on nailing the challenge and making it into the Top 9! You presented it beautifully.
Manuuu u making me drool .. u making me miss Bangalore! I LOVE appam with spicy a curry and since I came here, I never ate it anywhere! Now I have a recipe .. YAY. But can u make appam in any pan ? or do you need something specific ?
Stunning Manu! And app am looks a lot like Ethiopian injera. Thanks for sharing with us … AND congrats on making top 9! HUGS!
Wow! that appam looks just so perfect, lacey as it should be! Never heard of ambotik but I love all that is going into that. And what a wonderful blog you have here. So glad to have found you
Hi Manu,
Awesome creation…
Love the photographs….!!!
Oh dear Manuela, Ambotik look amazing..what a wonderful presentation and very inventive..I just love that! I will vote for you, right now..:))
You are certainly one ambitious chef!!! What a meal! It’s like you can taste it just looking at the pictures.
Nice pics.. but wrong on two counts. Goa is not a south Indian state.. it is a western India state together with Maharashtra. And trust me, there is no coconut in an ambotik (ambot=sour, tik=spicy(hot)) You can defintely call yours a goan shark curry, that would be more appropriate.
Sorry for raining on your parade, but you have got to know. Thanks for trying.
Dear Angela,
Thank you for stopping by my site and for your feedback. I appreciate hearing your point of view on this recipe. I am aware of the meaning of ambotik (my husband is Goan and speaks Konkani), but thank you for pointing that out as I thought I had written it on the recipe and realised I haven’t.
I am aware that there are many different versions of ambotik out there and some are made with coconut while others are made without it. I chose the coconut version (the recipe I used is adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipe for Ambotik which is made with scraped coconut) to make it milder so that everyone in the family could enjoy it (we have 2 little girls) and because I thought it would go nicely with the appam (which are coconut based). That said, if you have a recipe for it that does not use coconut, I would love to try it out. I am always on the look out for good curry recipes.
Explaining why Goa could be considered a South Indian state is not within the scope of my blog and is obviously a generic statement for my readers to understand what I am talking about and quickly place Goa on the Indian map (given that the borders of Goa fall well below those of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and could technically be considered to be in the South-West). Goan cuisine has certainly been influenced by the use of coconut which is common to the coastal areas in the southern part of India and dishes like “sanna” are very similar to “idli” (prevalent in the south). Obviously the Portuguese colonisation significantly influenced a major portion of the cuisine as well. I have put a link in the post for people who want to know more about Goan cuisine.
Once again thanks for sharing your opinion
and you haven’t rained on any parade 
Appam and fish curry is to die for combination. It looks perfectly done and it makes me weak on my knees.