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

1. Wash and soak the rice in water for 3 to 4 hours. Strain the water completely. Spread the rice on a white cloth and leave it in shade for 10 to 15 minutes.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Heat a paniyaaram pan, fill ½ of each groove with a mixture of oil and ghee. Let the oil get heated.
5. Now pour small ladleful of batter into each of the grooves, flip over after a minute. Let this cook on medium heat till a skewer inserted comes out clean.
6. Insert the skewer into each of the appams and transfer them onto a paper towel.

Yummy nei appams are ready.

Note:

1. You can dissolve the jaggery in about 1/4 cup of water and add it to the powdered rice and grind to a very smooth paste.
2. The consistency of the batter is very important to get soft appams. The batter should be of dosai batter consistency. Adjust consistency by adding water. If it is very tight, the appams will be very hard.
3. The quality of rice and jaggery used also play an important role in getting soft appams. Using Maavu arisi is reccomended.

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