Brown Rice Idiyappam
Healthy Brown Rice Idiyappam made from scratch! Also known as noolappam or string hopper, these South-Indian rice noodles are fibre-rich & gluten-free.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Brown Rice
- 1 tsp Salt adjust to taste
- 2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil + more for greasing the idiyappam press
- Water – for soaking grinding & cooking the batter
Brown Rice: I used brown basmati, but you can use any kind you prefer.
Equipment: You’ll also need a manual idiyappam press or a pasta press or a potato ricer with a thin noodle attachment.
Instructions
Soaking the Rice:
- Wash your brown rice well. Soak in enough cold tap water for 4-5 hours or overnight
Grinding the Rice:
- Add to a powerful blender along with 1 cup of water and salt. Grind to a smooth paste.
- Then add 1 more cup of water and grind to a smooth batter.
- Pour into a bowl. Add 1 more cup water, oil and mix well. The batter should be runnier than a dosa batter.
- Do not add too much water in the beginning, let the rice grind into a paste before adding more water.
Cooking the Batter: This batter doesn’t need to rest or ferment. You can go ahead and cook it immediately.
- In a large cooking pot, add the batter. Make sure you taste & adjust for salt at this stage.
- Turn on the stove to a medium heat and start cooking. Do not walk away, keep stirring continuously, to avoid forming lumps.
- Within 3-4 minutes you’ll start to notice the batter starts to thicken. Keep stirring until you have a thick mixture.
- Once its reached a thick consistency, cover with a lid & simmer and cook for 4-5 minutes.
- Then turn off and let the mixture cool down.
- Divide the mixture into 1-1.5 cup portions, and roll into smooth logs. Brush them with oil, and keep them covered until you’re ready to start making the idiyappam.
Making the Brown Rice Idiyappam:
- Fix your thin noodle hole attachment to your idiyappam press (you can also use a manual pasta press or potato ricer, but it’ll make slightly thicker noodles)
- Brush the inside really well with vegetable oil to prevent the rice from sticking too much.
- Add the formed rice logs into the idiyappam maker and close with a lid.
- You can squeeze the noodles onto a greased steamer plate, idli plate, banana leaves (placed on a plate) or any edible leaves. Start squeezing out the noodles in circular motion onto your plate / leaf, and stop at the center once you have a decent sized idiyappam.
- Place the plate in a steamer or the cooker or pot, steam for 4-5 minutes. If your noodles appear undercooked, steam for a few minutes longer.
- Let it cool in the steamer plate for a few minutes. If you de-mold it while hot, the noodles may break apart. Once cool to touch, gently remove with a spoon onto a casserole dish or container.
Serving the idiyappam:
- Serve the idiyappam hot with vegetable kurma, thengapal (sweetened coconut milk), chutney, sambar or any side dish you prefer!
Storing:
- In case you have leftover, just store in an air-tight dish in the refrigerator for upto 7 days or in the freezer for a month. Just steam or microwave with a drop of water to soften them again, right before serving
Video
Notes
When to steam the idiyappam?
- Since we cook the batter ahead of time into a thick mixture, and continue to steam until it is fully cooked through, you can directly squeeze into noodles & consume, in some cases. But this is only if the batter is fully cooked through.
- However, the batter gets a bit difficult to continue stirring and cooking all the way through, if you don’t apply furious strength to the process. Once you squeeze your noodles out, it looks like they’re too soft/disintegrating and seem undercooked, then just steam them on an idli or steamer plate for 4-5 minutes.
- However, please note that when it’s super hot, it will seem soft & undercooked. Let the idiyappam come to room temperature, taste & then decide if it needs additional cooking time or not!