Kerala Unniappam

Unniappam are sweet fritters made with rice, banana, jaggery and coconut. This was the stable sweet at our home. All the ingredients being easily available in kitchen. Once the bananas were over ripped it was my ammas ritual to convert it to unniappam. To see unniappam fry in the brass appa Kara (vessel used to make appams) was so soothing to eyes and the aroma of hot ghee was heaven. Here for this recipe I am using the non-stick appa Kara as it consumes less ghee. I remember Amma used to be besides the gas stove till all appams were ready and she used to not allow anyone to disturb her in between or else appams would turn black. In between we used to grab few hot hot appams.Yummy!! These were mine cherished childhood memories. Now appams are also prepared with wheat replacing rice.

 

INGREDIENTS

    Raw rice or sona masoori rice 1 cup

    2 medium sized banana

    ½ cup grated jaggery

    Green Cardamom 3 no’s

  Dry coconut 2table spoon cut into small pieces

    Ghee for frying

   

 

 METHOD:

 

Rinse 1 cup rice in water a couple of times. Then soak rice in enough water for 3 to 4 hours. You can even soak overnight if you want. Use any short grained rice. Amma used sona masuri rice. Later drain all the water and add the soaked rice in a grinder jar. Add 2 medium sized banana or about ¾ cup chopped bananas. I have used overripe bananas. Then add ½ cup grated jaggery and seeds from 3 to 4 green cardamoms. For a more sweet taste you can add ¾ cup jaggery. Addition of jaggery also depends on the sweetness of the bananas. So if the bananas are less sweet, you can add more jaggery. Grind till you get a fine rava like consistency in the rice grains. Grind till you get a semi-fine consistency in the batter. Now pour the batter in another pan or bowl. Keep aside. The batter has medium consistency. Now heat ½ tablespoon  ghee in a small pan or tadka pan. Add 3 tablespoons of chopped coconut pieces. Chop the coconut in small pieces. Stirring often start frying the coconut pieces. Fry the coconut pieces till they become golden. Add the fried coconut pieces along with the remaining oil in the batter. Mix very well and keep aside for atleast 45mins . Now heat the appa kara with some ghee in each hole and fill 3/4th of the hole with prepared batter.  Cook in low-medium flame until small holes appears on top and the side turns golden brown. Now flip the appam using the spatula or spoon and cook the other side until they are fully done. Check by inserting a toothpick in the center and it should come out clean, with no raw batter sticking to it.