Unni Appam/Nei Appam/ Vella Appam

Hi all.
This is my first blog and so thought of starting my blog page with a sweet recipe. All the recipes I posted are tried and tested. I will also be sharing some tips which will definitely be useful in enhancing the flavor or taste of the outcome. I have tried my best to explain the procedure with step by step pics.I am still in the process of learning to make good food photographs. Hope to better soon and will come up with bright and attractive pics.Now let me walk you through the recipe of Vella Appam/Unni Appam.

Ingredients:

1) Raw Rice -1 cup

2) Grated Jaggery *- 1 1/2 cup (1 1/4 cup is enough if you are using paagu vellam)

3) Cardamom Powder -1/4 tsp

4) Gated coconut - 1/4 cup

4) Baking Soda -a pinch

* Melt the jaggery for 10 sec in microwave .This will make the jaggery soft and you will be able to shred the jaggery with your knife easily. 

Method :

Step 1: Rinse the rice and soak it in water for 1 -2 hours.

Step 2: Drain the water and grind the wet rice finely to a coarse powder .DO NOT ADD WATER.

Step 3: Melt the jaggery in stove by adding a tsp spoon of water to it to initiate the melting process..Filter the jaggery for impurities.

Step 4 : Add the melted jaggery to the powdered rice and grind it to a smooth paste. It should be slightly thin than the dosa batter.Check the consistency of the batter below :

Step 5: To this ground mixture,add cardamom powder and grated coconut and mix well.Keep this aside for 30 min.

Step 6: At the time cooking the appam add a pinch of baking soda In the Appakarai ,add ghee /mix of ghee and oil filling the hole 3/4.

Step 7 :Once the ghee is heated ,add the batter to ONLY 3/4 of the hole. When you see brownish shades to the sides of the appam and small pores on the top,turn the appam for the other side to cook.

Step 8 : Once the appam is golden brown, your nei appam /uniappam is ready

to serve :)

Tips :

1) You can adjust the jaggery according to your taste. When you taste the batter ,it should be slightly sweeter. Only then the sweetness will be correct in the final appam . If the quality of jaggery is good ( if you are using Paagu vellam/Dark brown Jaggery) it is enough if you add 1 1/4 cup .Since I used normal jaggery I used 1 1/2 cup.


2)Do not add too much water while grinding the rice. Once you add jaggery it will dilute the batter anyways . So just sprinkle water to the rice and powder it. It the batter turns too watery,add rice flour/wheat four to it to adjust the consistency. 

3)Baking soda will make the appam spongy ,so do not miss this step.
Some peope prefer adding banana to the appam batter to make it soft.But this will reduce the shelf life of the appam and so I din't add. If you are making in small quantities you can try adding a mashed banana to the batter . 

4)Appam comes out better the next day than when made on the same day .Add baking soda only at the time of making.If you leave the batter with soda for a long time, your appam will consume a lot of oil .