Hoppers

Ingredients

Batter

• 300 graw white rice, soaked 4 hours and wet-ground, or 300 g fine rice flour
• 1 tspinstant yeast
• 1 tspsugar
• 150 mlwarm coconut water or warm water
• 400 mlthick coconut milk (first extract)
• 1 tspsalt
• ¼ tspbicarbonate of soda

For egg hoppers

• 6eggs, one per hopper
• salt and black pepper
• coconut oil, for wiping the pan

Kiri hodi, coconut gravy

• 300 mlthin coconut milk
• 1small onion, sliced
• 1green chilli, split
• 1 sprigcurry leaves
• 1 piecepandan leaf, 5 cm
• ½ tspturmeric
• ¼ tspfenugreek seeds
• juice of ½ lime, salt

Lunu miris

• 3shallots, sliced
• 2 tspchilli flakes
• ½ tspsalt
• juice of ½ lime

Directions

1. Whisk the yeast and sugar into the warm coconut water and leave 10 minutes until frothy.
2. Beat this into the rice flour or ground rice with 200 ml of the thick coconut milk to a smooth batter the consistency of double cream. Cover and leave in a warm place 8 to 10 hours until domed, bubbling and pleasantly sour.
3. Stir down the risen batter, add the remaining coconut milk, salt and bicarbonate, and thin it with water until it coats a spoon but runs off freely, about the thickness of single cream. Rest 20 minutes.
4. Simmer the kiri hodi ingredients except the lime for 10 minutes over low heat, never letting it boil hard or the coconut milk splits. Finish with lime and salt.
5. Pound the lunu miris in a mortar to a coarse red paste; it should stay slightly chunky.
6. Heat an appachatti or a small deep bowl-shaped non-stick pan over medium-high heat and wipe it with coconut oil.
7. Ladle in about 60 ml batter, lift the pan off the heat and swirl it in a fast circle so the batter climbs the sides and leaves a lacy rim and a thick soft centre.
8. Set the pan back on lower heat, cover, and cook 3 to 4 minutes until the rim is crisp and browned and pulls away from the metal by itself.
9. For an egg hopper, crack an egg into the centre after swirling, season it, cover and cook until the white is set and the yolk still runs, about 4 minutes.
10. Run a wooden spoon around the edge and lift the hopper out whole. Serve immediately with kiri hodi and lunu miris, and eat by tearing the crisp rim and scooping the soft middle.

Technique

• The traditional raising agent is toddy, fermented coconut palm sap, which is why the batter should taste faintly sour. Yeast plus a long overnight rise is the accepted home stand-in.
• Batter thickness decides everything: too thick and you get a thick pancake with no lace, too thin and the sides will not hold. Adjust with water hopper by hopper.
• The pan must be seasoned and hot before the first ladle. The first hopper of the day almost always fails; cooks in Sri Lanka expect it.

Substitutions

• No appachatti: a small wok or a 16 cm deep non-stick bowl pan with a lid gives a close shape, though the rim will be less delicate.
• In a hurry, 250 g rice flour plus 50 g semolina and 3 tbsp cooked rice blended in gives body without the full grind.

Variations

• Egg hopper (biththara appa), a whole egg set in the middle, the most ordered breakfast on the island.
• Pani appa, sweetened with treacle and coconut poured into the hollow.
• String hoppers (idiyappam) are a different animal entirely: steamed nests of pressed rice-flour noodles.

History

Bowl-shaped pancake of fermented rice batter and coconut milk, historically leavened with palm toddy; related to South India’s appam.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hoppers?

Hoppers is a breakfast from Sri Lanka: bowl-shaped fermented rice-coconut pancakes, often with an egg inside. Bowl-shaped pancake of fermented rice batter and coconut milk, historically leavened with palm toddy; related to South India’s appam.

How long does Hoppers take to make?

Hoppers takes 25 min of preparation and 10 hr fermenting plus 30 min cooking of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings, about 12 hoppers. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Hoppers?

Yes, within limits. No appachatti: a small wok or a 16 cm deep non-stick bowl pan with a lid gives a close shape, though the rim will be less delicate. In a hurry, 250 g rice flour plus 50 g semolina and 3 tbsp cooked rice blended in gives body without the full grind.

What is the most important thing to get right in Hoppers?

Simmer the kiri hodi ingredients except the lime for 10 minutes over low heat, never letting it boil hard or the coconut milk splits. Finish with lime and salt.