India - Uttappam

Background
This recipe was adapted from Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking. Uttappam was developed using batter left over from making Indian crepes. The author credits her sister for this simplified variation.

Ingredients (5 pancakes)
1/2 cup garam flour
1 cup plus 2 tbsp rice flour
1.75 cups water
1 tbsp cream of wheat
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp salt
1 large onion
3 plum tomtatoes
vegetable oil

Procedure
Start preparing the batter at lunch time the day before. Whisk together garam flour, rice flour, and water until the batter is smooth. Cover and set in a warm place until evening. If no warm place is available use your oven. Heat the oven to 200F, turn it off, and then place bowl inside. Check the oven periodically and re-warm as needed.
Before going to bed add cream of wheat and all purpose flour. Mix thoroughly and leave covered at room temperature overnight. The batter will develop a yogurt-like smell.
Chop onions and tomatoes and combine.
Stir in baking powder and salt. The batter should resemble pancake batter.
Heat frying pan to a temperature appropriate for cooking pancakes. Add 1 tsp of oil to the pan and coat the bottom.
Pour 1/2 cup of batter in the pan. Immediately add 2/3 cup of the tomato and onion mix pressing the mix into the batter. Once the bottom is golden sprinkle 1 tsp of oil over the vegetables and flip. Cook until batter is done. Place in warm oven until you are ready to eat. Repeat until you run out of batter.

Results and Discussion
This recipe is a nice variation on pancakes. The texture is less spongy and the onions and tomatoes add some sweetness and bite. We made a simple chutney as a topping and it was a nice addition. Clearly the lead time in preparing the batter requires you to plan ahead so they are not as casual an endeavor as pancakes. As with pancakes it is a good idea to make a small test pancake when starting to ensure the pan is the right temperature. An illustration of what happens when do not test the pan is the center image.