Vattayappam / Steamed Rice cake

That my mom is a wonderful cook is pretty much apparent from my 'never shrinking belly'. She has arguably the largest collection of recipes in the district and I honestly don't feel I am exaggerating when I say that. I can picture her cutting recipes from Femina and Women's Era back in the 80's when I was a small kid in Dubai and now three decades on, she's still at it even today, taking down notes from online cookery sites to try out at home.

Over the past few months, she has indeed been trying out quite a few dishes from both the traditional Malabar cuisine (remember this array of yummy food pics?) as well as international cuisine. And I figured what better place than at my site to showcase some of these dishes.

Today, I wanted to treat you all to a healthy Keralite tea time snack that has quite a few unique features - the Vattayappam or steamed rice cake. 

• The Vattayappam is considered as a healthy snack mainly because it requires no oil in its preparation.
• A fluffy, spongy steamed rice cake, you can garnish it with anything from nuts, raisins, cherries or just have it plain.

• In Kerala, people tend to associate it with Christians a lot. As far as I am concerned, all that means is more for me since Christmas is coming!
• Along with the usual Keralite suspects (rice and coconut!), cardamoms add a certain flavour blast to your taste buds in this dish.

While you can adjust the sweetness according to your taste, we at home do not make it too sweet. And I think that is the general consensus all over Kerala too. 

One fact that I was not aware of was that some people even have it alongside chicken curries and meat dishes. While this is news to me, any food-on-food combo sounds good so I am not complaining. 

Authors note:
All pictures you see here are from dishes made at home by Le Mom.
Earlier pics from the "Godyears Foodgasm" series includes:  
1. Home cooking Malabar style
2. Kalathappam / Rice Pancake with jaggery 

Expect to see more yummy food pics in the coming days, especially if you are a seafood lover (hey, I'm a Keralite! What did you expect?)