If you are familiar with south indian cooking, you are sure to have encountered the traditional appam, the irresistibly sweet, deep-fried, brown-coloured balls fragrant with molten jaggery! while it is traditionally made using ground wheat or a combination of wheat and rice, here is a slightly modified version which I feel comfortable with is using just rice. As an improvisation, you can mash a banana along with the batter, to make soft, fruity-flavoured appams. I am thankful to my Keralian Friend’s mom who introduced me my all time favourite Sweet!!!
Soaking Time: 5 Hours
Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Makes 25 unni appams
Ingredients
1 cup raw rice (chawal) , soaked and dried
1 cup grated jaggery (gur)
1/2 cup chopped fresh coconut
1 tbsp ghee
1/2 tsp cardamom (elaichi) powder
coconut oil or any other oil for deep-frying
Method
1. Blend the rice and jaggery together in a mixer to form a thick paste using a little water required.
2. Heat the ghee in a kadhai, add coconut and sauté till it turns light brown in colour, while stirring continuously.
3. Add coconut pieces and 2 tbsp of water to the rice and jaggery paste and mix well to make a smooth batter.
4. Heat the oil in a kadhai, drop a spoonful of the batter and deep fry on a medium flame till they turn golden brown in colour and crisp. Alternatively shape into round balls between the palms of your hands and deep-fry.
5. Repeat with the remaining batter to make unni appams.
Handy tip:
Deep fry the appams in the batches of 8 to 10 at a time.
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