Ottil pollichathu (Rice Pancake 2)

Unlike marichedutha Appam, these are paper thin pancakes made out of rice and is so easy that we make it at home almost everyday either for dinner with any non-veg curry or during breakfast with any vegetable curry. 'Ottil pollichathu' ( or Aridosa) literally means some thing that's cooked on a heavy base cast iron griddle (Odu). Long before the non-stick pans and gridlles conquered the cuilinary world, these rice pan cakes were prepared in cast iron griddle that was cooked on stone stove (kalladuppu) (large blocks of stones kept at a distance in a certain way to hold the dish on top and to put the firewoods underneath) by using dry woods and palm leaves or even dried coconut husk for fire. The firewoods needs to be frequently blown to keep them lit up else the the fire will be put off and you will have to light them up again. What lot of hardwork isn't it? I think it would have tasted better then. But these days who would bother using such heavy griddle and even think of stone stoves?But, we still have a modified version of the Kalladuppu back home, which is used mainly for cooking rice or for any long cooking.

Ingredients:
2 cup Long grain rice (pachari)
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1/2 medium onion
3 cups water
salt as required
oil- as required

Preparation:
1.Soak rice in tap water for a minimum of 2 hours.

2.Grind it along with cooked rice,onion and water until very smooth and no grains of rice can be felt when you touch it.

3. Add enough salt and mix well. When u taste the batter, you must feel it a bit salty but again not too salty.

4. Heat a frying pan at medium high heat, add few dashes oil and pour 1 ladleful of batter (½ cups of batter) in the centre and just swirl the pan around to spread the batter all over thinly. This also can be done by pouring the batter in the centre and using the back of the ladle, spread the batter by moving the ladle over the batter in coil motion starting from the inside and gradually moving towards outside to spread the batter all around as we do in Dosa. It needs a bit of practice. I normally do the swirling way to spread the batter.

5. COVER with a lid and cook until the batter changes colour or set. At this stage, using a spatula, flip over the pan cake. If you find it breaking, and is difficult to flip, close the lid and wait for some more time until the pancake sets even more and you can turn them easily. Cook the other side also in the same way until cooked. Keep turning a couple of time to ensure that it is fully cooked. It just have to set and don't wait for the golden spots to appear. Because if it is over cooked, they will turn harder later on. It takes around 4 minutes to cook one ottil pollichathu.

6. Continue the same process with the rest of batter until all batter is used up. Store them in a hot-pot/casserole to retain the heat. Serve hot with its best combination King prawn varattiyathu, or even simple chicken curry or Malabar fish curry, prawn and okra curry, potato curry in coconut milk, green peas curry in coconut milk,Chemmeen muringavaal curry that I will be posting soon..etc..