Sri Lankan Hoppers - Easy Recipe For Cold Climates
Beautiful round hoppers, soft in the middle, crispy, and golden at the edges are a real culinary delight indeed!
Never get discouraged by a couple of failures!
Although our mums and grandmothers are quite efficient in making hoppers, the new generation finds it quite a challenge to get the right proportions of ingredients to ferment the dough to perfection. They easily give up after a couple of attempts of trying to make perfect hoppers as it could be very disappointing and frustrating.
Do not worry or easily give up. I share this perfect recipe with you which was passed on to me by a dear friend, concentrating more on those who are living abroad, with a promise that you will be making such beautiful hoppers following this recipe to impress everyone in the family.
How to ferment the batter in cold climates
So, good luck friends! Enjoy your perfect hoppers with a spicy chicken or fish curry, not forgetting a tongue-burning ‘lunu miris’ (chilli chutney)
So, let’s make hoppers for supper tonight;
What you'll need;
Ingredients Amounts
Rice flour 2cups
Maggi P. 5tbsp
Yeast 1tsp
Brown sugar 2tbsp
Salt 1 1/2tsp
Warm
water 3+1 cups
Method :
1) Bloom the yeast
- Mix yeast and sugar with 5tbsp of warm water
- Stir rapidly until sugar is dissolved
- Cover and keep for 10 mins
Mix sugar and yeast with a little warm water - Stir until sugar dissolves
Cover and keep for 10mins
Yeast is fermented properly
2) Make the dough- Mix the fermented yeast with 2 cups of rice flour
- Now in a jug pour 3 cups of hot water and mix 4 tbsp of Maggi coconut milk powder
- Add this milky liquid to the flour and stir with a wooden spoon
- Add more hot water if necessary and mix vigorously until the flour becomes a soft dough but not runny.
- Now cover the bowl first with a cling film and then with a black tea towel or any black cloth and place it in a dark place. I usually place it in the oven which works brilliantly. Black colour retains the heat/warmth which is best for fermenting the dough. This method works for any cold climatic conditions
- Let the dough rest for at least 5 to 6 hours
Cover with a cling film
- After 5 hrs, open the lid, mix another 3 tbsp of Maggi coconut milk powder and salt into a cup of hot water and pour onto the batter and stir thoroughly with a wooden spoon until the batter turns into a thick yet runny liquid. You can add more hot water if the batter is too thick. If you make the batter too runny you may not able to make hoppers. So, take good care of how much water you add to the batter at this point.
- Cover again with a black cloth and leave for another 1 hr in a dark place
- Bubbles on the surface indicate the batter is ready to use
The right consistency of the dough for making perfect hoppers
- Heat up your typical non-stick hopper-making pan on medium flame
- Pour a ladle full of batter into the pan and swirl it twice. Place the pan back on the flame, and cover it.
- One hopper will take 5 min to be baked until crispy
- Once ready, slowly loosen from the edges with a flat wooden spatula and take out the hopper. Return the pan quickly onto the flame as it should be ready to bake the next one
- Repeat until you make the desired amount of hoppers
- For egg hoppers, you must break the egg right onto the hopper as soon as you swirl the pan with the batter. Cover and cook. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the top.
- For a sweeter version at tea time, grate some jaggery onto the hopper, once it is baked and fold it in half
- You can store any extra batter in the fridge and before making hoppers from it, you must take it out of the fridge at least 1hr before.
You cannot go wrong anywhere with this recipe as it has been tested many times and has never let me down.
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