God Appe

You see only half of the Appe here :)

Mrs. Vidya Shenoy is one of the many friends we made in Blr. She has an amazing home, an antique and artifact collection so huge that it keeps her busy all day long. She is one of those people that do every thing perfectly. Home, hearth or hobbies, she gives her best. She even packs her gifts carefully which is really rare here.

She likes to visit us once in a while and is always armed with goodies. Last time she had got figs in a lovely recycled paper bag. Remember the Fig Sauce. It is one of my most searched recipes . This time she got a bag of God Appe.

She loves to discuss about spiritualism with Dad and food, culture and art with me. Her sister introduced this blog to her when she was in Mangalore recently. So this time she has recommended that Dad see and read my blog. I don't know when that will happen.

As soon as Vidya Auntie handed the bag to me, I felt the warmth of the freshly made God Appe. I was not going to leave this opportunity to learn a recipe from a senior lady like her. She is a sugran, once she had served us dahi vada and moog dal payasa at her home and both tasted heavenly. The taste that I miss, of Mom's and Devaki Kaki's cooking, I find it in her cooking.

This is a sweet with old world charm and does not get made much in Mumbai homes. So I sat at her feet to learn the recipe and she eagerly shared it. Like all women her age she has to be prodded about the ingredients, gently asking how much of this or that did she use. They tend to assume that we would know and most measures are andaze, so I tried to measure out.

Ingredients

2 glasses raw rice

1/2 coconut

2 ripe big bananas

2 handfuls beaten rice/ pohe

1/8 kg jaggery

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup bits of cashew nut

1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder

ghee for roasting

Wash and Soak the raw rice for 2-3 hrs in water.

Drain and grind together the soaked plump rice, coconut, banana and pohe with minimum amount of water. It should be a thick batter.

Now this is a real tip from the sugran, jaggery has to be molten in a vessel with 2 tablespoons of water to get rid of the raw smell. Then cooled and added to the rest of the batter. Now add the baking powder, mix well and let the batter rest for an hour.

Just before you start cooking the Appe in the mould add the cardamom powder and cashew bits in the batter and mix well. About 1 tablespoon batter sits well in each cell of the appe pan. Roast it with ghee. Cook on one side then flip with a fork and cook on the other side.

Let the them cool a bit and then enjoy.

This recipe is for 50 Appe. One can halve the recipe or quarter it to get 25 or 12 Appe. They freeze well and can be made in advance. Just zap up in the microwave before serving to get back succulent Appe.

GAS 2008 (God Appe standards patented by gourmet yours lovingly) say they should be spongy, sweet, and cooked well right to the center. The aroma of cooked ripe banana and cardamom brings the old world charm right back to you.