Tantalise your taste buds with Rosette cookies

Walking down the streets of Los Angeles, eyeing with wonder the magical world of Christmas created by the lights, decorations, figurines, trees, with Christmas carols echoing in the midnight air, made me forget all the fire and destruction that had happened last week here. I wished I could transport this magical scene to everyone out there in Chennai and in India. 

This festive season took me back to the time when I had visited Kerala and stayed with my Syrian Christian friends, Rosy and Eben   , who had huge rubber estates and posh house in Kochi. Their grandma or ammamma as she was called, was loved and respected by everyone on the estate. It was my first traditional Syrian Christian Christmas celebration, and as a foodie, I was curious to know what was going to be cooked, and how. Over a glass of homemade wine, ammamma and I settled down for a candid chat. In their huge kitchen, wood fire was burning merrily and pots with aromatic dishes were cooking on the fire. Garlic, onion and dried fish, hung from the ceiling, made for a pretty pattern. Clay pots and vessels adorned one side of the shelf and all sorts of interesting spices, condiments and provisions were there on the other. Maids were busy cleaning fish, peeling onions and getting rice flour ready by pounding it in a stone mortar. 

The foreign influence on Kerala and the food of the regions along the southern coast, is well-known. Syrian Christian and South Indian Christian food reflect a lot of it. When St Thomas came to India, he not only brought in a new religion into this fertile place, but a whole lot of new dishes. A Scandinavian follower who came along, was a baker and he brought his famous Rosette cookie recipe, which was most famous in his country. They used a metal cookie maker shaped like a flower to dip in batter and fry. The famous Rosette cookie, took the name of achappam, with some of the ingredients changed - Maida became rice flour, coconut milk replaced cow’s milk, cardamom, instead of essence and eggs, remained optional. Thus, the tradition of making achappam for Christmas, was born. Achappam is a snack very popular among the Syrian Christians. It is very delicate and incredibly crunchy. It is made using ’achu’ which means specially designed iron moulds and is a word used in Kerala where appam is referred to something made with rice flour which is deep fried or steam cooked.

I gathered all this information sitting on a chair, listening to ammamma, many, many moons ago. It would be apt to share the recipe of this treat with you all.  

Preparation time: 50 min.

Cooking time: 25 min.

Calories per ACHAPPAM: 340CL.

Serves: 6-8

• Making the rice flour: Soak the rice in enough water for at least an hour. 

• Drain well, spread it on a flat surface, big plate or plain paper, and allow drying (for about half hr.). 

• Once dry (it should not be too dry, should be slightly moist), put it in mixer (in batches) and grind to fine powder. Sieve them and measure.

• Grate the coconut and extract the milk, by grinding it in the mixer with table spoon of hot water.

• Repeat adding some hot water, grinding it and squeezing it out.

• Now strain and squeeze the coconut milk out. 2 cups of thick coconut milk is needed. 

•Take the rice flour in a bowl (steel recommended, as you will be dipping hot iron mould into this, and you do not want the plastic to melt).

• Add Salt.

• Add sugar.

• Add the coconut milk, 1 cup at a time. Ensure you get a semi-thick consistency.

• Add the beaten egg

• Sprinkle the cumin, cinnamon powder and sesame seeds and give a good stir.

• Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel. 

• Dip the mould in this oil for atleast 5 min, till the oil is really hot

• Now dip the mould in the batter and immediately transfer it to the oil. 

• It will sizzle for a while.

• Now using a fork, slightly push the (now firming up) achappam into the oil. 

• Cook both sides. 

• Once done, drain the oil and let it cool on a kitchen towel.

• Repeat for the whole batch.

• Once all the Achappams are cooled well, transfer them to an airtight container.