Idiyappam Recipe | Idiyappam Thengai Paal Recipe

Idiyappam & Thengai Paal recipe with step by step pictures, steamed soft delicate Idiyappam dunked in sweetened coconut milk is my favorite dish. Its been long time I had Idiyappam with Thengai Paal, and last week for our weekend breakfast I prepared it and had it to my heart. Idiyappam is a popular South Indian Breakfast recipe, a steamed rice noodles that is prepared using rice flour. You can use homemade rice flour or store bought rice flour or Idiyappam flour for making Idiyappam. Idiyappam is served with vegetable stew or sweetened Coconut milk/Thengai Paal or any spicy Non-veg Curry.

I never had Idiyappam with stew or spicy gravy, Thengai paal or Sweetened Coconut Milk is my favorite combo. Here we rarely get good tender fresh coconut, so Whenever we get such fresh coconut I used to make Puttu and this time its Thengai Paal. Myself and my kids enjoyed it a lot and made Vella Sevai/Idiyappam in jaggery sauce for V. I have already shared Idiyappam recipe but with different method. This Idiyappam recipe is easy to make and anyone can make soft Idiyappam using this recipe. This is how My Mom & Grand Mom makes Idiyappam at home. You can make it in a jiffy, only thing is the dough should be at right consistency. Here, I have given tips to make soft Idiyappam with any kind of rice flour. I have tried with store bought rice flour, Pathiri Podi and Idiyappam flour too. You can use whichever is available to you.

Idiyappam & Thengai Paal Recipe

Prep Time : 15 minutes | Cook Time : 10-12 minutes

Recipe Category : Main Dish

Serves  2

Ingredients
For Idiyappam

1. Rice Flour or Idiyappam Flour   1 cup
2. Salt   a pinch
3. Sesame Oil   1-2 tsp
4. Water   1.5 cup or as needed*

For Thengai Paal/Sweetened Coconut milk

1. Fresh Coconut,grated   1 cup
2. Cardamom  3 or 4 no.
3. Sugar  2-3 tbsp or to taste

Method

• First in a sauce pan, add 1.5 to 2 cups of water, pinch of salt and sesame oil and bring it to boil. Once it starts boiling switch off the flame.
• In a wide bowl, add flour and now add water little by little and using a back of a wooden spatula mix water with the flour.

• Take care, the water is really hot don't get burnt and use spoon or spatula to mix flour and water.
• After all the flour have mixed, now grease your hand with oil and knead the dough gently to a smooth and soft dough.
• If the dough is sticky you can add 1/2-1 tsp flour and if it is dry and hard add couple of tbsp of hot water and knead it to a soft and smooth dough.

• Then divide the dough into 2 or 3 portions, depending on the size of our murukku press.
• Grease the murukku press and use omapodi achu(see pic) for making idiyappam. Fill the press with dough and squeeze on the greased idli plates or bamboo plate.

• And steam cook it for 10-12 minutes.
• Once done, transfer the idiyappam to plate and serve with stew or thengai paal.

For Thengai Paal

• In a mixer jar, add coconut, cardamom and 1 cup water and grind it to a smooth and fine paste.
• Then pour the paste to a bowl covered with cheese cloth or mesh strainer.

• Now twist and squeeze the cloth to extract coconut milk. This is called 1st coconut milk or mudhal thengai paal. 
• This is very thick and creamy in consistency.
• After extracting the coconut milk, again take the coconut shreds from the cheese cloth and add it back to the mixer jar and add 1/2 cup water and blend it to a smooth paste.

• And do the extraction and extract the coconut milk.
• If you want you can repeat one more time grinding and extracting.
• That's the coconut milk is ready. To this add sugar and stir well until sugar dissolves.
• That's it...Thengai Paal for Idiyappam/Appam is ready.

Notes:
*Water - I usually boil 2 cups of water to be in safer side, since some flour need 1.5 cup and some flour needs almost 2 cups of water.
So depend on the flour texture and quality the water amount may vary.
While adding it to the flour, add laddle by ladle and mix gently, if the dough is dry then you will feel hard to press.
If so remove the dough from press, sprinkle tbsp of hot water and again knead and use the dough.
If the dough is very soft and moisture, your idiyappam will be too soft and sticky, so if it is too soft just add 1/2-1 tsp flour and adjust the consistency.
You can use red rice flour also, but I haven't tried with it. Will update it soon here.