Hoppers Sri Lankan Style / ආප්ප

Recipe Credit

This recipe for hoppers is from my dear friend Manjula who makes amazing hoppers. If you’re lucky to be invited to one of her hopper dinners – you’ll see her cook on five pans simultaneously while happily chatting with her guests! When I make hoppers at home – the maximum amount of pans I can keep track of is three. I have modified her recipe to have 1/2 cup less flour to increase the coconut milk ratio to give it creamier coconut taste. But mostly this is Manjula’s recipe and technique so I am acknowledging that here. It is a simple rice-four and yeast recipe that contains no baking soda, eggs, bread, string hopper flour and whatever else I’ve seen in other recipes.

How I Learned To Make Hoppers

Initially I thought hoppers was “too hard” to try making. So I never bothered to learn this from my mother. She would often visit me in the US in my early years here and make hoppers. As the years passed by my mother hardly came to the US anymore and I began to miss her – along with her hoppers. So figured out how to make them myself. It was a revelation to find it’s actually easy! All you need is a solid recipe and non-stick pans.

Equipment and Stove

I don’t fuss with the old-fashioned metal pans where you have to temper them with eggs and what not. I like the convenience of non-stick pans. Whenever the non-stick coating starts to wear off – I stop using them. These days pans are available in the US in Indian stores and on Amazon, you don’t have to lug them from Sri Lanka. One thing that’s important is a direct flame like a gas stove. If you have a flat electric hotplate you can use a workaround of surrounding it with a ring of aluminum foil or hollow-out a round metal biscuit tin and place it around the hot-plate so that heat rises up the sides of the round hopper pan. Otherwise the sides don’t crisp up.

Why They Are Easy-to-Make Special Sri Lankan Meal

The best thing about hoppers is that they are special in themselves – you don’t have to spend a bunch of time making a ton of curries. A simple curry and a condiment of some kind is all you need like seeni sambol, pol sambol, or lunu miris. Even serving a protein is optional if you’re serving some egg hoppers.

Quantities and Storage of Batter

The batter stays fine in the refrigerator for a whole day – so if you’re making this for a small family of 3 folks my recipe as-is can stretch out over one breakfast and one dinner. The batter needs to be warmed to room-temperature before it’s pourable again (submerge the bowl in hot water perhaps). Beyond a day in the fridge the mixture gets too yeasty and will need to be frozen.