Sri Lankan Egg Hoppers

Ingredients

• 300g rice flour
• 50g cooked short-grain rice
• 1 tsp instant dried yeast
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 400ml canned coconut milk
• 250ml warm water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 4 eggs
• Coconut oil, for greasing
• 100g freshly grated coconut, for the pol sambol
• 1 tbsp Kashmiri chilli flakes, for the pol sambol
• 1 small red onion, finely chopped, for the pol sambol
• 1 tsp Maldive fish flakes or 1/2 tsp fish sauce, for the pol sambol
• Juice of 1 lime, for the pol sambol
• 1/2 tsp salt, for the pol sambol

Before you cook

• Warm the water to blood temperature, no hotter, or it will kill the yeast.
• Cook and cool 50g of rice, or use leftover rice from the fridge.
• Grate the coconut for the sambol and finely chop the red onion.

Steps

1. Whisk the yeast and sugar into 100ml of the warm water and leave it for 10 minutes until it froths.
2. Blend the cooked rice with 100ml of the coconut milk to a completely smooth cream. This is what gives hoppers their soft centre.
3. Put the rice flour in a large bowl and pour in the blended rice cream, the frothy yeast mixture and the remaining warm water.
4. Whisk to a smooth batter about the thickness of single cream, then cover the bowl.
5. Leave the batter somewhere warm for 8 to 10 hours, or overnight, until it is domed, bubbly and smells pleasantly sour.
6. Stir the remaining coconut milk, the salt and the bicarbonate of soda into the risen batter. It should now coat the back of a spoon thinly and pour easily. Loosen with a splash of water if it has thickened too much.
7. For the pol sambol, pound the chilli flakes, salt and Maldive fish together in a mortar until coarse.
8. Add the grated coconut and red onion and pound until the coconut turns rosy and starts to release its oil.
9. Squeeze in the lime juice, stir, and set the sambol aside.
10. Heat a hopper pan or small deep non-stick wok over a medium-high heat and wipe it with a little coconut oil.
11. Ladle about 60ml of batter into the hot pan, then immediately lift the pan by both handles and swirl it in a full circle so the batter climbs the sides and leaves a thin film.
12. Set the pan back on the heat and crack an egg into the pool of batter at the bottom.
13. Cover the pan and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until the edges are crisp, lacy and lifting away from the pan and the egg white is just set.
14. Slide a thin spatula under the rim and ease the whole bowl-shaped hopper out onto a plate.
15. Wipe the pan, and cook the remaining hoppers the same way.
16. Serve each hopper straight away with a spoonful of pol sambol in the middle.