Nei Appam and Uppappam are always welcome preperations in my mothers home. Somehow there is always an extra servings for the savouries, than the sweet version. Since I have a 6 year old, I always assumed she would like the sweet version, and so had soaked for Krishna Jayanthi, some rice for grinding and making Nei Appams, but she somehow was of the opinion that she preferred the salted version and the Lord would definitely like it too, as he was getting way too many sweets!!!
This used to be a favourite evening tiffin at my grandmother`s home, when she would make it, the aroma of chillies and ginger mingled with the aromas of the oil and hing etc would be simply awesome!!!
INGREDIENTS:
1 Cup Raw Rice soaked for 3 hours.
1/3 Cup Whole Urad Dhal soaked for 2-3 hours.
1 Inch Ginger shredded to very small pieces.
3-4 Green Chillies slit in to small pieces.
1/4 Cup of Fresh Coconut sliced in to very small pieces.
Handful of fresh curry leaves.
Hing.
Salt to taste.
PREPARATION:
- Wash the soaked rice well and grind in the mixer until its a smooth batter. Transfer to a bowl.
- Grind the urad dhal until its well done and you get a smooth batter. Add it to the ground rice batter. Mix well.
- Add sufficient salt to taste.
- Add the chopped ginger, green chillies, coconut slices, torn curry leaves and hing and whisk lightly in to the batter. The consistency should be not too runny yet not too thick.
- Take the Appa Karal and pour out enough oil in to all the little depressions.
- When they are hot enough ladle out enough batter which would fill 80% of the depression. If you fill it all the way, the batter would seep out when its getting cooked/fried in the oil.
- Allow it to fry well on one side and tip it over using a knife and a spoon to pry it out.
- When it cooks well on both sides, use a knife/skewers to remove and place on a tissue to drain out the excess oil.
- Tastes wonderful when accompanied with Tomato Thokku or Coconut Chutney, but I like it plain with the flavours of the ginger and green chillies, combined with the crunchiness from the little coconut pieces.
HINTS:
Sometimes, leftover Appams can harden a little so I serve it up by dunking it in fresh TOmato Rasam almost like Rasa Vadai.
The Urad Dhal provides the air and the sponginess in the Uppappam so its important that the urad dhal is soaked and ground well or you might not find the desired sponginess in the Appam once they are fried.
Anubhavati -Tastes from my kitchen 
Oh, how completely tempting- these vadas are my favorite!
I am working on getting extra long hands, just to grab this off your plate…
Happy Chathurthi to all of you Shoba.
uppappam looks wonderful …very nicely explained
happy vinayaka chathurthy to u n ur family too
Satyahttp://www.superyummyrecipes.com
shoba,
Appa kadai is really a boom, u can make any deep fried item with minimum oil. For paniyaram(or any form of appam) add a little poha while soaking the rice and see the results.
Thanks for the lovely comments Satya.
@ Nirupama, I am really enjoying all your little tips. Keep them coming. Thanks a ton. I also welcome your comments.
Wowwwwwwww.. mouth watering snaps.. looks so perfect and tempting..
Yummy looking uppappam, makes me drool…Happy ganesh chathurthi..
Beautiful, tempting pics. My family too loves uppappam….it is a snack that i make frequently.
Anubhavanthi,Your blog is really awesome.Different types of recipes.Loved many.Has bookmarked some.Will try and get back to you.Continue the good work.I conducted cookery classes there.Will soon write a blog about it and post the related pictures.Thankyou dear for your comments on my blog
solai
Hi Shobha,
Guess what, I just returned from Chennai on 11th, tasted the Kuzhi Paniyaaram at the Grand Stores, Anna Nagar…it was too good…and all the way back to Dubai, I was wondering if the batter was similar to the Idli batter…I land, and there you are, fulfilling my wish !
And it’s going to be the Snack for our weekend !
Thanks Shobha, for your passion to share…
Regards,
Anita
as usual superb recipe!
I love this a lot! We say morappam. I made this a few years back when I had my friends over for Navratri and this was new to them. They loved it too. It is still one of the lesser know Tamilian preparations though it provides some stiff competition to idli/dosa any day!
Hi Shobha,
As promised, tried out the uppapam accompanied by the Chettinad Tomato chutney..yum, yum, yummy…the coconut slices are definitely a good crunch in between..the next day I soaked a few in steaming sambhar, and that was another great meal too….Thanks a lot and greedy for more 🙂
Thanks for your lovely words Anita…
Super! Super!
Appadiye andha fry aara photo..aaha..pramadham!
we actually do it as per a standard routine….make dosa mavu….day 1 is idli…day 2 and 3 is dosa, day 4 is uthappam and day 5 is uppappam….instead of cutting coconut into small slices, try coconut thuruval…the taste is slightly different…