ICC recipe for the month of March is Vatteppam, steamed rice cake/pudding from Kerala. Shn was kind enough to let us use her recipe for this challenge. The recipe was lengthy and looked complicated but I knew right away, it would not be as complicated as it appeared to be and I was right! I missed last couple of challenges and was excited to try this new recipe. However, my excitement turned into disappointment once I made it. The recipe called for fresh coconut and I used frozen coconut. That was the culprit for my flop show. I wish I had followed the recipe and used fresh coconut! 🙁 The recipe calls for grinding soaked rice, fresh coconut and 2 tbsp of cooked rice to the make the batter. The batter is then fermented for 6-8 hours or overnight. Since I used frozen batter and fermented the batter overnight, the batter became smelly by next morning. It had this strong rotten/spoiled coconut smell. I still went ahead and steamed the batter to make vatteppam. The taste was fine but the smell over powered the taste. I also felt that I could have added little more sugar and it is just my sweet tooth! I made this yesterday and did not have enough time to prepare it again. Here is my picture of the vatteppam and the recipe can be found here.
This day in 2010 – ICC: Saggubiyyam Murukulu
Recipes I posted this month in 2009 and in 2010.
Champa says
Looks good. Who is going to eat this Usha? Since everyone likes spicy stuff at your home? Just kidding.
MySpicyKitchen says
me, me.. I am! I have a sweet tooth, Champa… I like both spicy and sweet food.. 🙂
Suman Singh says
Sounds new dish to me..looks great and yummy!
Priya says
Spongy vatteppam looks prefect, i cant stop eating them..
Raji says
Looks so good…I enjoyed making this…real challenge.
Harini-Jaya Rupanagudi says
Hey I used frozen coconut too but didn’t have any problem ! I felt it was mildly sweet but thats fine with us ..
Suma Gandlur says
I am with you regarding the yeasty smell and taste of the appams. I also found the sweetness very subtle.
And I am not able to figure out what happened to your recipe by the addition of frozen coconut. Your appams looks fine in the image.
I too added frozen coconut and infact I do substitute it in all the recipes demanding fresh coconut. Most of the coconuts they sell here would be rotten when broken and so I completely stopped buying them.
MySpicyKitchen says
It came out perfect but the smell was too strong, rotten coconut smell. I though it might be due to mixing frozen coconut in the batter and letting it ferment overnight. Normally, frozen food goes stale when left at room temperature for a long periods of time, right?? I was thinking the smell was due to that.. Or it could be the yeast smell that some of the ICC members pointed out.
Vidhya Jayadeep says
Appam look good.Maybe try coconut milk next time if can’t find fresh coconut .It works fine for me.
Pavani says
Vatteppam (in the pic) looks fluffy and yumm.. I had frozen coconut at home too, but was skeptical about using it, that’s why ended up using coconut milk. Sweetness was a bit less for us too, could have added a little more.
Enjoy your weekend Usha.
sweta says
Wow….the vatteppam looks delicious!!!! I have never had it before….want to give it a try!!!
Vaishali says
I’ve never come across this recipe before– it looks just delicious.
Srivalli says
But I am glad you liked it Usha..:)..maybe you will try with fresh coconut next time?..:)
Priya Mahadevan says
I’ve seen several versions of this now thanks to the challenge – Yours looks perfect and delectable, Usha – also great to read more about you 🙂 next time I am in NY I am calling on you so we can go to Vatan together 🙂
MySpicyKitchen says
Sure Priya, do call me.. I never been to Vatan.. Made plans couple of times to go with my friends but had to drop out in the last minute.
Malar Gandhi says
I never had them before’ looks too good, makes me hungry as well.