Crisp at the Edge, Soft in the Middle

Known as aappa in Sinhala and appam in Tamil, the hopper is a bowl-shaped pancake made from a lightly fermented batter of ground rice and coconut, cooked in a small rounded pan until the rim turns thin, lacy and golden while the middle stays soft and spongy.

It belongs to a food tradition shared across Sri Lanka and South India, and appears in Tamil writing going back many centuries. On the island it is everyday comfort food, eaten at breakfast or as an evening meal, plain or with an egg cooked into the centre (the much-loved egg hopper), served with sambol and curry or cooked with sweetened thick coconut milk in the centre, as a treat to round off a hopper meal.

A good hopper starts with the right pan. Ours is an 18cm, heavy-bottomed, non-stick hopper pan with a glass lid, built to hold and spread heat evenly so the batter swirls into that signature bowl shape and cooks to a crisp, lacy edge and a soft centre.

The weighty base keeps the temperature steady from one hopper to the next; the non-stick surface releases each hopper cleanly with little or no oil; and the glass lid lets you watch it cook while trapping the steam that sets the middle, especially handy for egg hoppers. It works on both gas and electric hobs and is dishwasher safe, so clean-up is easy. Traditionally hoppers are made in a rounded clay or steel appa chatti; this is that shape, made easy for the modern kitchen.