23 August 2013

Unniyappam

Kerala Uniappam recipe


Unniyappam is one of the favorite , popular  and traditional snack of God's own country, Kerala , which happens to be my home state in India .Just like the name of the recipe it means Unni + appam ,small rice cakes in fine.They are yummy and I bet no one can eat just one .A bite of it and you will already feel you are in Kerala as it will tickle your taste buds with coconut , jaggery, coconut oil flavors in all because Unniyapams are made of rice, jaggery, roasted coconut bits and deep fried in Kerala oil, the coconut oil .

They remind me of my childhood days when my expert mommy darling used to make tons of them .My brother and I would just gobble up like a competition . Never realized how hard my mom worked to prepare those unniyappams' in the traditional way and stored it in a big can UNTIL I started making them myself here but then the instant version though and I was already feeling impatient and tired .Not to mention , now I appreciate my mom's effort more. Love you mom .Oh I am feeling nostalgic here!

By the way , my source of inspiration to make this snack are none other than riiipe Bananas .Yeah ,one day when I saw couple of Bananas riipe and felt like it's time to trash them and that day a call to my mom turned into the birth of these snacks in my wonder kitchen :D and it was instantly hit :)..though it didn't taste the way my mom made...well,how can it be it has the secret ingredient in it only she has and that's her love :)..that would make a love ly difference of course :)..unbeatable !!

So, quick yet tasty version of my "INSTANT UNNIYAPPAMS" is this :

Ingredients :


Rice flour - 2 cup
Wheat flour - 1/2 cup
Jaggery- 3/4 cup
Water -3/4 cup
Small Banana - 2 or medium Banana - 1
Dry roasted coconut bits- 1/2 cup
Baking Soda- 1/2 teaspoon
Cardamom powder - 1 teaspoon
Cumin powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Ghee - 1 Tablespoon
Coconut oil (Preferably) for deep frying


Preparations :

  1. Dry roast the rice flour in a pan for like two minutes .
  2. Melt Jaggery plus water in a pan in a low flame .Allow them to cool down and then strain it .
  3. Grind the Bananas into a puree with no lumps.
  4. Roast the coconut bits in oil in a pan or lightly fry it till it becomes light brown .
  5. Now mix well the roasted rice flour, wheat flour, melted purified jaggery, Banana puree, roasted brown coconut bits, cardamom powder, cumin powder and baking powder.
  6. The batter should have the idle batter consistency. If too thick , add little water to loosen it and if it is on the thinner side , add some more rice flour.
  7. Allow them to rest for  like an hour .
  8. After an hour , heat the coconut oil (for the authentic Kerala flavor ) otherwise any other oil or Ghee for a richer version of them in an Unniyappam chatti (a pan exclusively used to make unnyiappams) and make sure that oil should be up to 3/4th of every mold in the Unniyappam pan and not completely .
Unniyappam pan
Unniyappam chatti

   9. Once the oil is really hot, lower the flame and pour a ladle of batter into each mold.     
  10. Once they get cooked and browned , flip it to the other side and do the same.
  11. Once both sides are brown , place them into tissue papers to drain off excess oil.



  12.  And there you go tasty munchy Unniyappams are ready to be devoured.I got about 25 of'em.

   By the way, here - my Unniyappam from me to you,my dear viewer friend :)...enjoy :D



Note : The traditional Unniyappams are made in the similar way except that the raw rice is used and soaked overnight or like 4-5 hour and grounded to a "Coarse" paste not the smooth one and you can omit the wheat flour and rest all are same. That's my Mom's version but lazy me would always go for the ready made rice flour one. Will try that one fine day hopefully. Till then instant version Jai hooooo...

Sending this unni munchies to :

  1. Dish Name Starts with U


2. Walking through the memory lane by Avika & Walk Through Memory Lane - August Announcement by Gayathri