Unniappam

Unniappam or Neyyappam is a famous sweet dish from Kerala. It is similar to Tamilnadu's 'inippu kuzhipaniyaram' with some banana. some months ago I tasted this made by a friend and absolutely loved it. Making perfect shaped paniyaram using my heavy pan is a challenge for me, so I needed a detailed recipe. Then I googled and got this recipe from this video that gave me the spongy unniappam. Try this during a rainy weekend and enjoy!

My puff pancake pan serving as traditional thick bottom appa kal:) Minimum heat is the secret behind paniyaram.

Unniappam after flipping.

Pillow-soft unniappam ready to eat !

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 1 cup
maida (AP flour) - 1/2 cup
ravai (Sooji) - 2 tbsp
(sooji makes flipping easy)
jaggery (or) palm jaggery - 200 gm (1 cup)
coconut - 2 tbsp
cardamom - 2
banana - 1 (well ripe)
raisin - 4
baking soda - 1/4 tsp
coconut oil / ghee - 1/4 cup (as per need)

Method:

Mix jaggery with 1/2 cup water and bring it to a boil. Switch off, let it dissolve. Filter and remove any impurities. Let it cool.

Grind banana, coconut, raisin,cardamom together to a fine paste.

Mix all the three flours in a mixing bowl. Add the banana paste and jaggery solution, mix well. It should be thick like idly batter. Let it soak for 2 hours.
(We can keep the batter after 2 hours inside fridge and use for a week).

Just before preparing the unniappam, add the baking soda, mix well and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Heat a paniyarakkal (paniyaram pan / puff pancake pan) or appakaral. Add oil/ ghee till 1/2 of the depth of each hole (first time only, then 1 tsp in each hole will do). Let it get hot.

Then pour the uniappam mix in each hole till 3/4.
Reduce heat to the minimum and wait till its cooked on one side.
Then with the help of a wooden skewer (vadai kambi), gently flip the appams.
Let them cook in that side too.

Then take them out and drain the excess oil using a kitchen towel.

Unniappam is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Makes a tea time snack or a  traditional breakfast.
Makes 28 pieces
(7 hole paniyaram pan X 4 times)

Tips:

Mix oil and butter / ghee to get a more flavored neyappam.
Cook the unnippam covered with a tight lid, if it sticks to pan.

Badam Halwa

Happy Deepavali to all my readers and friends! Hope many are busy preparing Diwali snacks. Here is a recipe from my kitchen for your family.

Badam - Almond ; Halwa - fudge.

Batham halwa is a popular dessert of India. Till our good friend Mr.Kannan and family gave us a box of this Badam halwa, I never knew if it is my hubby's most favorite. Thank you friends! I have always ventured into typical South Indian desserts for festivals, but the way Xav enjoyed this almond halwa, scoop by scoop....made me try immediately:) Basically it is a one line recipe with just soaking, grinding and stirring....but involves some essential tips too. I got the recipe from this website and it was so simple and impeccable. Visit her and you will be definitely tempted by that big tray of Almond halwa. Thank you Chithramma!

Home made Badam halwa.

Ingredients:

Almond - 1 cup
milk - 1 cup
ghee - 1 cup
sugar - 1 cup
saffron - few strands
cardamom - 4

Essential Tools:

Thick bottom broad wok
a long handled stirring spatula.
hand gloves - a pair

Method:

Soak almond in water overnight and peel them (or) put them in boiling water and keep till its skin wrinkles. Then add cold water and peel them.
Grind the almonds to a paste using milk. It should be coarse like idly batter, so that we get a nice almond texture afterwards.
Put 1/2 cup ghee, ground almond and cook in a wok for few minutes. Then add the remaining ghee and sugar and stir continuously at medium heat.
Now we will see bubbles (approximately after 10 minutes), reduce the flame and stir carefully. Hand gloves is a must to remain safe at this stage.
After 5 minutes the bubbles will subdue and the halwa will start leaving the edges and ghee starts showing up.
Add the cardamom powder and saffron. Mix well.
(Yellow food color 1 drop can be added if we need more color.But that won't be essential).
Switch off and carefully transfer to a ghee coated ornamental vessel.
Total cooking time 20 minutes.

Serving suggestions:

Serve hot as dessert.



Happy Deepavali!