Appa (Hoppers)
Appam is a type of South
Indian pancake made with fermented rice batter and coconut milk. It is also
very popular in Sri Lanka where it is commonly referred to by its anglicized
name as Hoppers. It is eaten most frequently for breakfast or dinner. It
is known as ආප්ප (Appa)
in Sinhala.
Variations
- Plain hoppers
bowl-shaped thin pancakes made from fermented rice flour.
They derive their shape from the small Appachatti in which they are
cooked. They are fairly neutral in taste and mostly served with some spicy
condiment or curry. These hoppers are made from a batter using rice,yeast, salt
and a little sugar. After the mixture has stood for a couple of hours, it can
be fried in the appachatti with a little oil.
- Egg hoppers
the same as plain hoppers, but an egg is broken into the
pancake as it cooks
- Milk hoppers
have a spoonful of thick coconut milk/coconut cream added to
the doughy center. When cooked, the centre is firm to the touch but remains
soft inside and is sweeter as a result of the coconut milk.
Puttu
Puttu) is a South Indian and
Sri Lankan breakfast dish of steamed cylinders of ground rice layered with
coconut. It is highly popular in the Indian state of Kerala as well as in many
areas of Sri Lanka, where it is also known as pittu. Puttu is served
with side dishes such as palm sugar or chickpea curry or banana.
Puttu principally consists of
coarsely ground rice, grated coconut and water. It is often spiced with cumin,
but may have other spices. The Sri Lankan variant is usually made with wheat
flour or red rice-flour without cumin.
Puttu is made by slowly adding water to ground rice until
the correct texture is achieved. It is then spiced, formed and steamed with
layers of grated coconut.Puttu is generally cooked in a metal puttu kutti vessel with two sections. The lower section holds water and the upper section holds the puttu where the rice mixture is inserted with layers of grated coconut. Perforated lids separate the sections to allow the steam to pass between them. A number of alternative cooking vessels are used, such as traditional vessels where a perforated coconut shell is attached to a section of bamboo, or a chiratta puttu made of a coconut shell or of metal shaped similarly to a coconut shell.
Puttu is
frequently served with various breakfast dishes, such as papadum, plantain,
fish curry, jackfruit, mango, chicken curry and kadala curry .In Sri Lanka,
pittu is usually accompanied with tripe curry, fish or a meat curry, coconut
milk and a sambol.
Idiyappam (String Hoppers)
Idiyappam string hoppers
is a traditional Sri Lankan food consisting of rice flour pressed into noodle
form and then steamed.
idiyappam
is culinary specialty in Kerala, Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu and southern areas of
Karnataka (especially in the districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu) .
It is also a culinary staple in Sri Lanka. The name idiyappam derives from the
Tamil/Malayalam words idi, meaning 'broken down', and appam,
meaning "pancake". Pronounced as e-di- ap-pam The dish is also,
frequently, called noolappam or noolputtu from the
Malayalam/Tamil/Kannada/Kodava word nool, meaning "string or
thread", especially in Kodagu. In coastal areas of Karnataka it is also
termed semige.
It is made of rice flour or ragi flour (Finger millet
flour), salt and water. It is generally served as the main course at breakfast
or dinner together with a curry (potato, egg, fish or meat curry) and coconut chutney.
It is served with coconut milk and sugar in Sri Lanka and in the Malabar region
of Kerala. It is not usually served at lunch. 
