Home made rice noodles | Idiappam | Idiyappam | Kukskitchen

Keralan rice noodles  / idiappam is a tasty and super skinny breakfast carb which can pass-off as a delicious first course with fish or chicken. It has literally traces of fat and is steamed which makes it extremely healthy. Roasted rice flour is used which adds to the special flavour. It is very quick to prepare and will be ready in minutes. Traditionally made using a special sev nazhi / press, it can be made city friendly by using a piping bag with the thin round nozzle on.

A few things before we start: 

- Greasing the inside of your sev nazhi/ press makes the semi-cooked rice flour glide through the perforations.
- Make your noodles as soon as the flour comes together as a dough, still semi hot / warm for ease of pressing.
- Add a tsp of oil or ghee which makes the dough soft and helps your noodles stay softer and less stickier for longer.
- Use only roasted rice flour or your noodles will disintegrate while steaming. Dry roast rice flour till a soothing aroma hits ur nose. Do not let it burn.
- Use a thick bottomed pan to make your dough as this keeps the rice flour from burning.
- Close the pan with fresh dough covered at all times to prevent drying and losing heat.
- Use a bowl made of a poor conductor of heat, say plastic, to knead the dough, again to help prevent loss of heat.
- The idea is to squeeze all the dough through before it goes cold and a cold dough means tough dough.
- For making larger volumes, make them in batches using one cup of flour at a time. rice noodles form one cup of flour fits perfectly in one set in my steaming vessel. So when one batch cooks away in the steamer, I make the dough for the next batch.

- Make sweet idiappams by alternating layers of squeezed fresh noodles with a sweet coconut mixture and have them with sweetened plain milk or coconut milk. Thanks Vimitha of 'My culinary tiral room' for reminding me of this childhood favourite combo. :)

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Home made rice noodles

ഇടിയപ്പം 

Serves: 2 -3

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Ingredients:

Roasted rice flour - 1 cup

Water - 1 1/2 cup

Salt -  to taste

Oil/ ghee - 1 tsp (optional)

Method:

• Grease a ceramic/steel plate with oil.
• Bring a cup of water to boil in a thick bottomed pan and add salt to taste.
• Bring the flame down to minimum before adding a cup of rice flour stirring constantly.
• Turn off the heat and continue to stir till combined.
• Transfer to a bowl and knead for less than a minute to make it soft( while still hot). You can do this in batches.
• Transfer enough dough to a greased sev nazhi or piping bag and press to squeeze out noodles on to the greased plates.
• Steam for 3-5 minutes or till cooked through.

Serving suggestion:

• Serve hot with chicken stew or fish molee or egg curry.

Recipes that use rice noodles:

• Keralan style rice noodles here

• Spicy indian rice noodles here.

For techniques of how to steam try here

Cheers 

Sherin Deepu