In Mariamma’s kitchen: appam and egg roast

If there is one meal guests ask about after they leave, it is breakfast: lacy appam with a soft centre and a thick egg roast. Mariamma, who runs our kitchen, starts it the evening before.

The appam batter begins at about 4 pm with raw rice soaked for five hours. She grinds it in a wet grinder with a handful of cooked rice and fresh grated coconut from our own trees, adding water slowly until the batter is smooth and pourable. A spoonful of sugar and a little toddy or yeast go in, and the batter is left in a covered steel vessel overnight. In the cool hill air, fermentation is slower than on the plains, so the vessel sits near the stove. By morning it has risen and smells faintly sour and sweet.

The egg roast is cooked at six. She slices a kilo of onions very thin and cooks them in coconut oil on a low flame for nearly half an hour, until they are soft and golden. Ginger, garlic, green chillies and curry leaves go in, then tomatoes, Kashmiri chilli powder, coriander and our own black pepper. Boiled eggs, scored on the sides, are added at the end so they take on the masala.

The appams are made one at a time in a curved iron appachatti. Mariamma pours a ladle of batter, swirls the pan once so it climbs the sides in a thin lace and covers it for a minute. The centre stays thick and soft. She makes them only when guests are seated, never in advance.