are you I've just returned like
literally this minute from Sri Lanka and
I promised you guys I'd show you how to
make hoppers cuz everyone loves Hoppers
now there's two ways the first is a
really hard way using rice flour and
grinding it but there is a mix this one
MDK Hopper mix now I've tried to make
this before and the big thing that I
found is they never worked and you know
why inside this packet is a packet of
yeast and if you just break the end off
which is what I normally do and then tip
it in you don't get the packet of yeast
so I found the yeast I just put it into
a
bowl which um has just the hopper
mixture and the yeast and then I'm going
to
add water the water just needs to be
blood temperature so that it doesn't
kill the yeast and it depends on what
country you're in so if you're if you're
somewhere really cold it's going to take
you a little bit longer to get the whole
thing to
rise so blood temperature 30 OD de you
don't have to measure it though just put
your finger in it should feel nice and
then we need to make a stiff batter so
have a look in
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here this is basically rice flour so
just like
cornflour it's going to go quite hard
whoops mix it and don't put too much
water
in I I have to
say totally disregard the instructions
on the
back because I have been trying to
follow them for ages and what I'm
bringing you is the secret of this
mixture so you know when you make paper
masche that's what you
want a nice thick batter ha the mashing
no
lumps nice and thick can see that it's
just dripping off my finger the whole
batter now is nice and warm so what I'm
going to do with that is put a cloth
over the top put it somewhere warm maybe
on the back of your oven maybe somewhere
in the heat I'm in the Queensland
climate so even here it's a little bit
too cool it's got to be humid 30° or so
to make the yeast
rise while that's happen happening you
need to get a couple of things ready you
need some coconut milk powder now this
is a very very small powder available in
Sri Lanka I'm not indorsing anyone but
this brand is excellent there's a couple
of them on the market look for this
brand all the time because it just works
really well and doesn't separate the
other thing you'll need is some Hopper
pans the hopper pans have been cured or
seasoned um which I'll show you in a
minute but that is so important that you
have them nice and smooth a few
lids and a scraper but strangely in Sri
Lanka what they do is they get a spoon
and just bang it out so that it's
totally flat and I think that might work
just going to have to wait now until it
proves which will be about 3
hours the mixture now has been in here
for an hour and a half I um turned the
oven on you can see down here
uh and the flu of the oven sort of gave
it a little bit of heat I turned it
every now and again and you can see that
the mixture has started to crack and
Rise meaning that the yeast itself is
working it's formed a bit of a skin but
you can see in there all the air bubbles
right so it's
proved it's nice and fluffy lots of air
in it these are the ingredients that
you'll need you'll need to have 100 G of
coconut milk powder with 300 M of water
if you make the water slightly
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warm you won't get any lumps in the
Coconut powder and you'll have a
nice coconut meal give it a good
risk so lightly fluff the egg make sure
it's all combined white sugar not brown
sugar this time because it'll color the
hopper mixture and I don't want to do
that and some salt
so I always say use the same same type
of salt but when you're using salt in
this case it would be better if it was
just
um fine salt finely ground salt sugar
into the mixture as well and then I want
to make sure I get all of the egg so I'm
going to put that actually into the
hopper
mix and now see the air bubbles in that
it's beautiful mix that
through and as soon as you whisk it you
knocking all the air out of it give the
milk a bit of a whisk and add about half
to start because the consistency of this
is right and
important too thick and they're going to
be gluggy too thin and you won't get the
special thing Hoppers have and that's
that crumple like feel right in the
center I've used it all because I think
this mix is going to be
perfect I'll get a whisk I'll get a
ladle and I'll show
you how it should
be quite a thin mixture it's like a very
light pancake
batter give it a stir we'll put this
this away for another half an hour let
it prove again and then we'll see if it
worked the
batter has sat here for about 20 minutes
it's still very very thin one of the
most important things to do is always
stir it now the next is the pan have to
make sure that the pan is cured and by
cured you just basically put some oil
into it and get heated up then add salt
swirl it around so that it fills up all
the holes take that out cook a scrambled
egg in it to see whether it sticks on
the size wipe it out and
then wipe it with a little bit of
Sesame once the Pan's
cured this is what we do we have the pan
on and the best way to tell whether it's
hot or not just put it up to your face
and you can feel the heat radiating off
the pan there should be no smoke coming
off the the pan at all you also need
some sesame oil so with a little bit of
sesame oil just rub it all the way
around the pan you don't need a thick
layer it just needs to be enough to
cover it and to grease it every time you
make a hopper make sure that you stir
the
mixture then place it into the
center and
swirl ensuring that you get every bit of
it there's a little bit too much you can
you can tip it out and
then if there's some that's come around
the edges you can just cut it
off and then just as it starts to set we
crack an egg always crack the egg
separate place it into the
center and put a lid on
it now you have to wait once the hopper
goes
on the heat has to be turned down that's
for blast you can see that it's turned
right down otherwise the hopper will
burn
now it's been about 1 and 1 half minutes
I haven't touched the lid it's really
important not to take the lid off
because the steam is just as important
to cook this thing as is the heat
underneath it now I can have a look come
in and check this out it's starting to
peel away from the
sides but you can see that over here
there's more heat on this side than that
so I'm just turning it it's not quite
ready but when it peels away from the
pan there that's a great sign I'm just
going to add a little bit of
pepper pepper on my Hopper put the lid
back on and steam it for another 30
seconds or so all of 3 and 1/2 minutes
have gone the hopper will be ready come
inside and have a
look the egg now has set the hopper
starting to peel away and to remove it
without breaking it you need to do this
hold it off the flame give it a tap and
that if your pan if your pot has been um
cured enough should be enough and then
it should just slide up and there you
have a beautiful Hopper how do I know if
it's worked really well couple of things
the edges will be
crisp underneath it should C but
underneath should be a nice golden color
and the center should be a bit like a
crumpet let's break it open and
see see
that like a crumpet all fluffy but
crispy on the
outside Sri Lankan egg hoppers in NSA
enjoy it wherever you
are