Hoppers

Ingredients

• Rice flour400 g
• Coconut milk500 ml
• Dry yeast5 g
• Sugar1 tbsp
• Warm water250 ml
• Eggs — optional6
• Red onion — for the sambol2
• Chilli flakes2 tsp
• Limes2
• Maldive fish — for the sambol2 tbsp
• Vegetable oil40 ml
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water and leave it ten minutes, until it foams.

   12 min

2. 2

   Mix the rice flour with the yeast mixture and half the coconut milk to a smooth batter.

   8 min

3. 3

   Cover it and leave it to ferment overnight at room temperature, about eight hours.

   10 min

4. 4

   In the morning stir in the remaining coconut milk and salt; the batter should be as thin as pouring cream.

   6 min

5. 5

   Mix the finely chopped onion, chilli flakes, Maldive fish, lime juice and salt; that is lunu miris.

   10 min

6. 6

   Heat a small wok, oil it and pour in a ladle of batter, swirling the pan immediately.

   8 min

7. 7

   Break an egg into the centre, cover and cook three minutes to crisp edges. Serve with the lunu miris.

   30 min

About the dish

The batter ferments overnight with coconut water or yeast. The sourness gives a hopper its recognisable taste; on unfermented batter you get a plain rice pancake.

The bowl shape — thin crisp edges and a soft thick base — comes from swirling the pan. The batter goes into a hot wok-shaped pan and it is turned in a circular motion.

The egg is broken into the centre immediately after the batter goes in, while the edges have not yet set. Later, the egg keeps the edges from baking and the hopper comes out raw.

Worth knowing

• — The pan has to be small with a rounded base. In a flat one the batter spreads and no bowl forms.
• — The first hopper is almost always a failure — it shows whether the pan is hot enough. It is simply discarded.
• — The batter thickens as it ferments. Let it down with coconut milk as you work, not water.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

380 kcal

Protein

10 g

Fat

16 g

Carbs

50 g

More from Sri Lanka

• Kottu roti — Godamba roti chopped on the griddle with vegetables, egg and curry, worked with two cleavers.
• Pol sambol — Fresh coconut pounded with chilli, onion and lime. Five minutes to make and served with everything.
• Sri Lankan fish curry — Fish in a coconut curry soured with goraka and built on roasted curry powder.