The Pondicherry Times & Appe Recipe
We spent a day in Pondicherry and were just delighted with the place. Admist all the beautiful colonial buildings, it felt like a visiting France in India. One of the best experience was having hot appe and masala milk on the Promenade beach. The best was kept for last which was spicy and flavorful dinner at Anjappar.
Pondicherry or Puducherry is a city, an urban agglomeration and a municipality in Pondicherry district in the Indian union territory of Puducherry. It is affectionately known as Pondy, and has been officially known by the alternative name Puducherry since 2006.
Pondicherry is a popular tourist destination in South India. The city has many colonial buildings, churches, temples, and statues which, combined with the systematic town planning and planned French style avenues, still preserve much of the colonial ambiance.
The most popular tourist destinations are the four beaches in Pondicherry, which are Promenade Beach (also known locally as the Rocky Beach), Beach, The Auroville Beach and Serenity Beach. Sri Aurobindo Ashram, located on rue de la Marine, is one of the most well known and wealthiest ashrams in India. Auroville (City of Dawn) is an “experimental” township located 8 km north-west of Pondicherry. It is meant to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities.
There are a number of old and large churches in Pondicherry, most of which were built in the 18th and 19th centuries. A number of heritage buildings and monuments are present around the Promenade Beach, such as the Children’s Park & Dupleix Statue, Gandhi statue, Nehru Statue, Le Café, French War Memorial, 19th Century Light House, Bharathi Park, Governors Palace, Romain Rolland Library, Legislative Assembly, Pondicherry Museum and the French Institute of Pondicherry at Saint-Louis Street.
Click on the below gallery for all pics from the trip
Here is the Appe Recipe
Appe or paddu is another traditional element of south indian cooking – to be specific, it is a popular breakfast dish from the konkan regions in the west coast.
Ingredients
1 cup rice (chawal)
1/4 cup urad dal (split black lentils)
2 tbsp coconut oil or any other refined oil
1/4 cup crushed peanuts
2 tbsp chopped onions
1 tsp mustard seeds ( rai / sarson)
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
1 tsp finely chopped green chillies
8 to 10 curry leaves (kadi patta)
asafoetida (hing)
salt to taste
coconut oil or any other refined oil for greasing
Method
Clean, wash and soak the rice and urad dal separately in lukewarm water for at least 2 hours.
Drain, add ½ cup of water and blend in a mixer to a smooth paste. Cover and keep aside to ferment overnight.
Next day, heat the oil in a small kadhai, add the peanuts and onions and sauté on a medium flame for 3 to 5 minutes.
Add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, green chillies, curry leaves and asafoetida and mix well.
When the seeds crackle, pour the tempering over the fermented batter and mix well.
Add the salt and a little water if required and mix well to a thick batter.
Heat the appe mould on a medium flame and grease it lightly with oil.
Pour a spoonful of the batter into each mould and cook it in a idli steamer till the outer surface becomes golden brown.
Turn each appe upside down using a fork so as to cook on the other side.
Repeat with the remaining batter to make more appes. Serve hot with tomato chutney
Recipe credit Tarla Dalal
