Original neiappam/ Rice fritters

On Wednesday, there was this strong urge to post something. I had soaked rice to make Neiappam, the previous night because there was a special request to make it. It is a sweet celebration snack that evokes lovely memories. But Wednesday progressed as a day in a school essay topic, ‘The day when everything went wrong’!

In the morning, I got the batter ready, ground rice and cane sugar and blended all other ingredients well. I left it to hang out to ferment for a while and went shopping. There was a particular summery dress I liked at one of the shops but when I tried, it was the right size but body hugging. It had a long zipper and was quite tight and fitted like a glove without a little room. The next size was not available. The lady at the counter said that I could fit in that dress perfectly if I walked half hour, 3 times a week and cut down my sugar intake by half. Great advise! I was very disappointed and came home, had lunch and prepared dinner. Then I started making these rice fritters.

Before I finished 2 batches my husband came home. We had tickets for a movie so I had to turn off the stove and rush to the cinema. It was a bit early when we reached, just an hour or so, because my husband is an annoying early bird. There was no one except us and I relaxed sinking into the seat. The movie started with the pre-show stuff and then the main movie as more people walked in. I have never experienced a power failure for a long, long time now. But it happened then and we waited 10 minutes until they announced that they would give us a complimentary ticket to watch the movie later. Tired and crushed we came home, had our dinner with a few dissatisfied grumbles as sides. I didn’t even have a peaceful sleep that night. Is this what they call, Man proposes, god disposes’!

On a happy ending note, the next day everything was set right. Determined to workout, I went to the shop and bought that dress! Yay! Completed making the fritters and took pictures. Then in the evening we watched that movie too. So what started badly on Wednesday ended well on Thursday.  The sweetness of those appams are there to enjoy for a few more days to come.

Neiappam is a finger food, a lot oily and very sweet usually made during special celebrations. Nei is clarified butter, also called ghee and appam is the rice fritters fried in it. This is a favorite and frequent snack at home as my husband loves them. I have posted another appam recipe adding lentils here: rice-and-lentil-fritters.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice
• 1 cup jaggery/brown sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 1 ripe banana
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• coconut cut into small pieces
• Ghee for frying
• rice flour if needed
• water as needed

1. Soak rice overnight.
2. Take jaggery in a pan and add 1 cup water and melt it on medium heat to get a thick syrup.
3. After it cools, strain it and collect the syrup without any impurities.
4. Grind rice to a fine paste adding jaggery syrup.
5. Add chopped bananas and grind everything to a thick paste.
6. Add water if thick or rice flour to thicken it if watery.
7. Collect the batter in a bowl and add cardamom powder and chopped coconut pieces.
8. Set the batter aside to ferment for 2-3 hours.
9. Heat an appam pan, pour ghee/oil into each hole of the pan and heat.
10. Pour the batter in each hole to reach the top.
11. When it starts browning and the sides start releasing, carefully flip to the other side.
12. Fry till they are dark brown on both sides.

This batter plays a major role in making soft appams. The batter should be of pouring consistency like pancake batter. If it is thicker the result will be harder appams. Fermenting the batter also makes it softer.

Fry these using ghee or oil or a mix of both. After one side is cooked, the center will still look watery. So flip carefully using a spoon and a fork. Caramelized sugar makes appam turn brown and sticky. When cooked it is crusty on the outside and soft inside with the bite of the coconut pieces. I made a total of 40 appams.

If you do not have this special pan called appakara, the appam mold, deep fry the batter. Pour a spoonful into hot oil in a pan and prepare these as flattened fritters.

   Do you like the appearance of my appam? They are crispy outside but spongy delicious inside. The preparation is a long one, but these neiappams are a reward in itself!

These are super tasty! I had many of them as they are irresistible! Now, let me start my fitness sessions.

I was quite busy this week and a bit lazy too…but Fiesta Friday prompted me to post this. Thank you FF for the motivation!

I am bringing this to party with all of you at Fiesta Friday #76.