Nei Appam

Hello Friends!

Last year on this day, I sat down and gingerly wrote my first post!  And today after a year I am writing my 120^th post. The journey thus far has been wonderful with lots of new friends, searching for new recipes, experimenting with them, capturing them and so on. I am overwhelmed with the support my readers have extended towards me and my blog. So at this juncture I would like to thank all my readers and fellow bloggers who have visited my space regularly leaving their valuable feedback.

Any milestone achieved calls for a celebration right! So today, I am sharing the recipe of the very famous Neiappams. Neiappams are a part of the Palakkad Iyer Cusine, be it a festival, marriage, or religious function. What the Palakkad Iyer’s call Neiappam is known as Unniappam in Kerala.

 The only difference I know of between Neiappam and Unniappams are that the latter are made by pouring small ladle full of batter into a special pan, called the appa karal whereas the former is made by pouring a ladle of batter directly into oil/ghee. The end result being that Neiappams are slightly bigger and flatter at the underside whereas unniappams are much smaller.

Karthigai is approaching and Neiappams are a part of the offerings made on this day. So celebrate this Karthigai with these yummy appams.

What you’ll need

1.       Raw Rice – 1 cup

2.       Powdered Jaggery – 1 cup

3.       Banana – 1 small. ripe

4.       Coconut – ¼ cup, cut into small pieces (optional)

5.       Green Cardamom/Elaichi – 4 to 5

6.       Oil/ghee for frying

Method

Wash and soak the rice in water for 2 hours. Strain the water completely. Grind the rice without adding any water into a very fine powder. Now slowly add the powdered jaggery and keep grinding adding very little water. Also add the chopped banana and grind to a smooth paste. Transfer into a bowl.

Add the cardamom, and coconut pieces. Mix well. The batter should be of pouring consistency, not too tight or too runny. Add water if necessary.

Heat a paniyaaram pan, fill ½ of each groove with a mixture of oil and ghee. Let the oil get heated.

Now pour small ladleful of batter into each of grooves, flip over after a minute. Let this cook on medium heat till a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Insert the skewer into each of the appams and transfer them onto a paper towel.

Yummy nei appams are ready.

Linking this to Kavi's event Jingle All the Way.