Surnoli (Coconut-Rice Pancakes)

The British crumpet bears some resemblance to these in texture and might provide a more useful reference point than the pancake.

Pancakes, so apropos 'cause we're seeing lots of flipping.

Yes, you can, in the same way that yoghurt keeps in the fridge (the sourness is due to fermentation by lactic-acid bacteria). I grew up eating these myself, and once my mom made a batch of the batter, it would last several days.

In my experience the food processor does not produce a fine enough texture from the ground rice. In modern Indian kitchens an electric grinding mill is used - in our kitchen we process it in batches in the Vitamix blender until it is a thick batter with a slightly grainy texture.

@Steve - you're absolutely right about the texture issue. For texture sticklers who don't want to invest $300+ in a Vitamix, use rice flour (available in Indian stores) instead of whole rice.

I believe a basic fermented dosa batter could be used as the basis for these - we make dosas beginning with a rice-based sourdough mother, the soaked and ground-up idli rice and urad dal, and after a night's fermentation can repurpose it into dosas, idlis or hoppers. (Surprised the article didn't mention these kissing-cousins of sunoli.) Adding coconut milk and baking powder (and perhaps a little jaggery) to the dosa mix would produce a very close facsimile to sunoli batter.

According to Consumer Reports, "A blender is better at mixing drinks and whipping up smoothies, while a food processor is ideal for chopping, slicing and shredding. You can puree foods in either appliance." Since pureeing is what's involved here, it will work fine.

The surnoli is similar to the kerala’s famous aapam, the lacy pancooked cakes that are traditionally fermented with coconut water and yeast.

@Prakash great suggestion to try rice flour. I'm thinking it may need a little less than the 2 cups of rice, given that rice flour will measure up more compactly than grains of rice.

This recipe does sound amazing! Can you make these in a food processor or will the mix just fly out of the sides and not be processed fully and finely enough?

I wonder if you can store uncooked fermented batter in the fridge for a few days and cook some up every day or so.

When we make a similar batter for dosas, idlis and hoppers - naturally fermented, without the yogurt - it can actually survive in the fridge a couple of weeks. For longer storage we freeze it.

I don't think it will alter the texture very much, if at all. Actually I was thinking savory version as well! You can add cumin seed, perhaps mustard seeds, ginger root, curry leaves, green chillies, and tiny bit of chilli powder. The savory version will go well with South Indian coconut chutney (also called idli chutney).

My diabetic mom made these sugar-free: we individually added sweet toppings such as homemade orange marmalade. The fermentation process, by lactic-bacteria (yielding sourness) and natural-yeast (producing sponginess due to carbon dioxide) is similar to that used for Ethiopian Injera batter. Srini's suggestion below for an utthappam-style savory pancake is excellent. (Utthappam uses dosa batter but is thicker, spongier, smaller in radius and less tricky to make than a good, crisp dosa.)

Lisa, I use light brown sugar. The color and taste comes close to jaggery and is much more convenient to use