Nei Appam Recipe - Ingredients

Preparation Time : 3 hrs | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Makes : around 15
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: South Indian | Recipe Reference: Shanthis Thaligai

Raw rice - 1 cup
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
Rice Flour - 1 tbsp (optional)
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Elachi powder - a generous pinch
Coconut grated - 1 tbsp (optional)
Melted Ghee / Oil - for deep frying

Method:

1. Mix jaggery with water and heat it up for few mins until it is slightly thick(no consistency needs to be checked).
   
2. Strain the syrup to remove impurities, collect it in a bowl.Heat it up and cook for few mins to make the syrup thick like honey in consistency.
   
3. Soak rice in water for atleast 3 hours. Drain water and grind rice with very little water to a fine paste preferable in grinder because it minimizes water.Now add this jaggery syrup to the rice paste. 
4. Keep mixing to make a flowing slightly runny batter.
   
5. Add elachi powder, coconut,baking soda and mix well. If you dont want to add baking soda skip it and Set the batter aside for another 2 hours for fermentation.Then heat paniyaram pan , add a tsp of ghee / oil in each hole.
   
6.  Pour a spoon full of the batter in each hole.Cook covered for a minute.
   
7. When cooked on one side , carefully flip to other side - add oil / ghee if required.Cook until both sides are golden brown.Remove and serve hot!
   

My Notes:

• If you dont have paniyaram pan then you can deep fry them by pouring a spoon full of the batter in heated oil and deep fry them until golden brown.
• I soaked rice morning and this was ready for snack time. 
• If the batter is too runny then it will drink more oil so adjust accordingly.
• You can also use half oil and half ghee to fry the appams.
• As we are addding jaggery the neiappams get a deep reddish brown.The color of the appams depends on the jaggery variety and color.I used paagu vellam.