Unniyappam

Cuisine: South Indian (Kerala)

Serves: 10 (25-30 pieces)

 

Firstly let me wish everyone a warm & Happy New Year. This year I am going for slight revamp of my blog.

To kick start this year, I am going with the Unniyappam – a trademark delicacy from Kerala. Right from my childhood till date I continue to drool at the sight of this dish being prepared by my mom. My initial thought was that this was going to be tough one to cook up these golden brown beauties. But once I gave it a shot figured out that it is not that painstaking after all.

 Ingredients

• 1 cup Raw rice (pacha aripodi)
• 2-3 ripe small banana (palayan kodan)
• ¼ – ½ cup Jaggery
• 1 tsp. jeera (nalla Jeerakam)
• ¼ tsp. Cardamom Powder
• 2 tbsp. Coconut bits (thenga kothu)
• 1 ½ tbsp. Ghee
• Coconut oil for deep frying

 Melt the jaggery in ¼- ½ cup water. Strain and keep aside.

Fry jeera in the ghee and remove them and to that same pan, add coconut bits and fry them till brown. Remove and set aside.

In a grinder, mix the rice flour, mashed banana along with melted jaggery and blend to a smooth batter. No lumps should be there.

Pour the batter into a bowl and add cardamom powder, coconut bits and jeera. Keep it aside for about 4 – 5 hours.

The batter consistency should be similar to that of an idli batter. To get the desired consistency, you can either add coconut milk or water.

You will be needing a special cooking mould for making this unniyappam. It’s called unniyappa chatti.

Heat the unniyappam mould and fill it with coconut oil till ¾th of the hole. Pour the batter & fry them on low medium heat. Once its half cooked, you can see the batter leaving the sides of the pan. Flip it using a fork or skewer and fry till golden on both sides. Remove and drain onto a paper towel. Serve warm. You can store them for a few days in an air tight container at room temperature.