Kalathappam / Rice flour Cake

Kalthappam / kalathappam is a famous snack from Kerala Muslim cuisine.It is kind of cake prepared by rice flour. Some prepare it without adding sugar, and take it with curries.At home,it is prepared as an evening snack especially for children coming from school.The aroma of fried small onions and coconut pieces are really appealing!I always loved this, and mom prepared this for me during my visit to her. She prepared it on the ordinary firewood stove top,(a furnace like stove without smoke).There are few other ways of cooking this, like baking, or on a gas stove.If you make it on a gas stove, use frying pans,oil it, cover and flip over the dish. Or you can make this in a pressure cooker too.



Ingredients
Rice powder 2 cups
jaggery 2 blocks or as desired
coconut grated 1 cup
small onions 4
egg 1 optional
cumin seeds 1/4 tsp
cardamom crushed 2 or powdered
salt
coconut oil



Grind together,
coconut,2 small onions and jeerakam / cumin seeds with enough water.



Melt jaggery in little water and remove impurities.
Break egg into a pan.Mix with ground solution , rice powder, jaggery, cardamom powder and enough salt.The batter should be thick like idly batter. So add water according to that.
Chop 2 small onions.
Heat a heavy bottomed pan / chatti. Pour little coconut oil as we take for seasoning curries.
Fry chopped small onions in this.
Pour the batter into this.If you cook this on an ordinary firewood stove cover with a banana leaf / vazhayila and place a lid on it and put some coal over it.
Or you can bake this in an oven. check it is cooked and browned as you see in the picture.
Do add ghee roasted coconut pieces / thenga kothu for extra taste!



Cut into pieces and serve with tea when it is done.. Enjoy!

How to make kalthappam in a pressure cooker.
Somebody had asked me how to make kalthappam in a pressure cooker. I was not able to reply that time, and recently I tried it that way.. It was really easy to make.
Here is the procedure, do the seasoning first when the pressure cooker is hot, When the onions turn brown, pour the batter into that. Close the pressure cooker lid without putting the "weight".
Then pressure cook for 2 minutes on a high flame, then lower it , cook for about 5 minutes. After that put off the flame, keep the lid closed and allow to cool for some time... It was very easy to make, hope you too could try this way! :)