Anyone who knows me knows how much I love—no, adore—stringhoppers! My love for them started in the veranda of my grandparents home, where we would enjoy a Sunday meal of stringhoppers and various curries while watching the Mary Tyler Moore show. As I have mentioned before, my grandmother was an exceptional cook and her cooking was well known, admittedly by the neighbours who, to this day, talk about how they salivated as the aroma of her food wafted over the boundary wall! Even after she fell ill and could no longer engage in her passion, my grandfather continued the tradition of Sunday stringhopper lunches. Although not as skilled as my grandmother, he made a soup with vegetables and chopped-up sausages that still holds a nostalgic place in my heart.

Stringhoppers are a staple in Sri Lankan homes and are eaten mainly as breakfast or dinner. They are served with a variety of curries, one of which must have a gravy with the ability to drown, and a coconut sambol of some sort. The name “stringhopper” originates from the words “string”, as they are string-like”, and “hopper” which comes from the Tamil word “appam” or Sinhala “aappa”. The most reasonable assumption is that the British colonizers during the eighteen to nineteen hundreds misheard and mispronounced the local word “aappa” as “hopper”, thus the birth of the English name “string-hopper”. The original name for the stringhopper is idiyappam (Tamil ) from which the Sinhala name indiyaapa came to be. “Idi” in Tamil meaning to pound (as in the rice needed to make the dish, and “appam” meaning cake or bread. It is believed the dish originated in South India, possibly Kerala, and has since spread to South East Asia as well. In Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia it is called Puttu Mayam and are eaten a bit differently to India and Sri Lanka. Vietnam also has a similar preparation called Banh Hoi, again eaten very differently.

The stringhopper is essentially steamed rice noodles in the form of a lacy pancake. Wheat, and finger millet versions of it can also be found in Sri Lanka. The rice flour can be milled from either red or white rice, giving rice to brown/red or white stringhoppers. Traditionally, rice flour was milled at home—a labour-intensive and time-consuming process. These days, however, most people use store-bought rice flour. In Sri Lanka stringhopper flour is conveniently and widely available. Once the dough is made, it must be extruded through a press onto streaming racks. The stringhoppers are then steamed before they are removed from the racks and can be eaten.

Ingredients (for 18-20 stringhoppers)

• 1 ¹/₂ cups rice flour (I use Thai Jasmine rice flour)
• 2 cups water
• 1 tsp oil
• ¹/₄ tsp salt

Method

1. Bring the water and oil to a boil. Place the flour and salt in a bowl and mix well. Add the hot water all at once into the flour and mix quickly with the back of a spoon or a chopstick.
2. Using the spoon/chopstick fill the cavity of the stringhopper press. place the upper section of the press and squeeze out the dough on to steaming racks. You could also use your hands if you let the mixture cool down a bit, depending on your heat tolerance. (see video on my Instagram account)
3. Place the racks inside a steamer and steam the stringhoppers for 8-10 mins. If preparing multiple batches, make sure to replenish the water in the steamer.
4. Remove stringhoppers from the steaming racks, taking care not to burn oneself.