Fennel Seeds Spiced Rice Crepes | Kalthappam Dosha

Ari dosha using kalthappam batter! Ari Dosha are rice crepes of the Moplah food world that do not require fermentation! You can make ari dosa with any kind of raw rice which can be made immediately after grinding to a smooth batter. Serve with any spicy curry for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

I am sure most Keralites grew up eating rice or rice items for breakfast, dinner and lunch... it is almost the same case for any South Indian home and we were much healthier and fit then isn't it? Then when and why did we become so hostile to white food? and replaced them with brown? I too almost avoided eating rice and all rice items for so long, totally ignoring my body's needs. But did anything change? No. I am no dietitian, nor a white food hater... I love rice and I make it a point to add it to our menu more often these days. What makes any difference between portion control and hustle? What made us will never break us. So eating local, seasonal, and what our body is used to since we were born is what we need. Food is never our enemy, it is a life-giver. White is Nice.

Ari dosha or rice crepes is home to Malabar cuisine. Again there are so many different variations exclusive to each family. My Mom makes this quiet often for dinner and weekend breakfasts along with some non-veg curry. I am very poor with Malayalam names of rice and still struggle to recognise the different kinds of rice that she uses. Pachaari, puzhagalari.. blah blah.. never made sense. Every time I had to ask her what are they.. and finally, she just said "Pachari is what you make rice to eat for lunch... " She really on me with that.:-P I love her dosha and wanted to recreate them here. As I use only long grain rice, mom's ratio of rice and cooked rice never worked well consistently and I always ended up with muddled up or uncooked doshas. The ratio of raw rice to cooked rice is the make or break factor.

When F's friend's mother from Kasaragod visited Khobar, she made Kalthappam for breakfast for us. Yes, we have both sweet kalathappam and savoury kalathappam. I think it translates to bread made in a deep pot. The taste instantly reminded me of my mom's ari dosha. It is almost the same batter. I got the recipe for Kalthappam from Shab's blog and made it quite a few times with beef curry!  For making Kalthappam, the entire batter is poured into a deep pan and cooked and resembles a cake. But this time I used the same batter minus the extra onions to make these crepes and it worked so perfectly. It brings in almost the same taste as Mom's ari dosha!

Presenting to you my kalthappam dosha!