Kalathappam

Kalathappam is a rice and jaggery sweet eaten in places such as northern Kerala. A sweet rice batter is combined with fried shallots and coconut. The toasty aroma of the shallots layers over the sweet batter.

Baking the rice batter in a pot

In one example, raw rice is soaked and ground together with cooked rice, and melted jaggery is added. Fat is heated in a pot, thinly sliced shallots and pieces of coconut are fried, and the batter is poured in and the lid is put on. Some recipes use a pressure cooker, and the batter is baked through to the center while the heat is adjusted.

Jaggery gives color and sweetness to the batter of ground rice. The fried shallots do not cancel out the sweetness; instead, they add a toasty note brought out without scorching. When pieces of coconut are included, they also change the chew within the soft batter.

It is made around Malabar and Mangaluru, and the cooking methods vary. Some local methods apply heat to the pot from above and below, but that is a different process from the examples of using a pressure cooker at home.

The home pot and teatime

Nishat M. A., who grew up in Kozhikode, remembers the kalathappam that Valiyachu, who worked in the household, made in a clay pot at teatime. Shallots were fried in a pot over a wood fire, a batter mixed from rice flour, jaggery and coconut was poured in, and charcoal was placed on top of the lid as well. When the lid was opened, the aroma spread through the house, and it became a snack for the children coming home from school.

In another household’s pressure-cooker example, part of the browned coconut and shallots is set aside and scattered over the top after the batter is poured in. In this recipe, the pressure-regulating weight is not attached, and the batter is cooked over very low heat. The deep color of the baked bottom and the toppings on the upper surface each give it a different look.

Glossary