Paruppu Paniyaram

Paniyaram was always one of the most sought after snack at home. Amma would make it for breakfast with the sweet version during family gathering. But Amma makes another version with raw rice which i will be posting later. This recipe is from Athai who makes lots of varieties in it. This version is especially a healthy one and tastes great.

Ingredients:

Idly rice-1 & ½ cup

Channa dal-1/3 cup

Toor Dal-1/3 cup

Moon dal-3 tbsp

Urad dal-4tbsp

Raw rice-3 tbsp (optional)

Vendhayam/Fenugreek seeds-1 tsp

Dried Red chillies long-8

Salt-as needed

Oil- for drizzling

To Temper:

Mustard seeds-2 tsp

Urad dal-2 tsp

Channa dal-2 tsp

Cumin seeds-2 tsp

Onion-1 large, finely chopped

Asafoetida-1 big pinch

Curry leaves-1 sprig

Oil-2 tbsp

How It Happened:

1. Wash the raw rice, idly rice and soak them in water along with fenugreek seeds and red chillies. Let the water level be 1 inch above them and soak for 4 hours

2. Wash and soak the dals for 3 hours. Rice and dal are to be soaked separately. But you can put the dals together.

3. Drain the water, and grind the rice+fenugreek seeds+chilies to a coarse paste with little water. It should be like fine sooji. Transfer them to a bowl.

4. Now add the dal and grind well to a smooth paste.

5. Add them to the rice batter, add salt and mix well. Allow them to ferment for 5 hours.

6. Now heat oil in a tadka pan, add all ingredients under the ‘to temper’ list. When the onion turns golden brown, switch off the flame and add this tadka to the batter.Mix well.

7. Heat a paniyarakal/aebelskiever pan in medium flame, add a little oil to each pit and then add little batter to each slot.

8. Cook in medium flame for a minute, then turn each one around and cook them on the other side for another minute or until it is done. When u poke a stick (the stick that u use to remove the paniyaram from the pan) inside the paniyaram it shouldn’t be sticky/have uncooked batter in the middle.

9. Remove the paniyaram once when they are cooked and all golden brown.

10. Serve hot with coconut chutney.

Notes:

*The batter keeps well in the fridge for 2 days. But do the tadka only for the quantity u r going to use up immediately.

*You can add turmeric powder.

* Raw rice adds crispiness but you can skip it.

* Soaking the chillies makes it easy to grind. Else you can grind them first before adding the rice.

*The batter gets sour faster so just take only the needed batter u would use and try keeping the rest refrigerated.

* Use a mix of coconut oil and ghee to drizzle over the edges. It just smells and tastes DIVINE!