Chettinad Style Kuzhi Paniyaram

Chettinad Style Kuzhi Paniyaram

A delicious breakfast dish or serve as an evening snack !!!

Ingredients

Non – stick Kuzhi Paniyaram Kadai

Idli batter- 1 bowl (for 14 kuzhi Paniyaram)

Cooking oil / ghee- 3 teaspoon

Or Basic batter recipe (for dosa too):

Please use standard measuring cup to measure rice and dal (measuring cup of 200 ml / 8 oz capacity).

Ingredients

¾ cup boiled rice (puzhukkalari / ukkada chawal / idli rice)

¾ cup raw rice (pachari )

¼ cup urad dal

½ teaspoon salt

Method

Wash and soak rice and dal separately for 4 hours in water (2 1 /2 cups water for rice and 1 cup water for urad dal). Make a paste of dal and rice separately in a mixer or grinder. Add little water when making paste. Transfer both the batter in another big vessel / container. Add ½ teaspoon salt. Mix batter well (stir continuously with a thick ladle) and keep aside for 5 – 6 hours to ferment. Batter should be of pouring consistency.

For the masala / seasoning

1 tablespoon oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)

1/4 teaspoon urad dal

1 small green chilli, very finely chopped

1 teaspoon very finely chopped ginger

6 curry leaves, very finely sliced

1 onion, finely chopped

3 tablespoons grated coconut

For the sago:

1 tablespoon sago (sabudana) soak sago in ¼ cup water for one hour and gently squeeze out water. Finally mix soaked sago with paniyaram batter / idli batter.

Method

For the masala / seasoning:

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add jeera and urad dal. Saute for 2 minutes.

Add finely chopped ginger, green chilli, onion and curry leaves. Fry on a low to medium heat for 5 - 8 minutes until fragrant / golden color and crisp. Switch off the heat and add grated coconut. Gently stir well for 2 minutes.

Pour the seasoning over batter batter and mix well evenly (including soaked sago). Adding sago and grated coconut is giving additional golden color to paniyaram.

Final preparation:

Heat Kuzhipaniyaram Kadai on a medium heat. Smear each mould with little oil / ghee.

Pour Idli / Paniyaram batter in each mould ( 3/4th of the mould ). Sprinkle oil / ghee.

Cover with a lid. Cook for 8-10 minutes in a medium heat . Cook till crisp and sides will turn golden brown ( until the edges separate from the moulds of the kadai).

Turn the other side with the help of a stick and cook till done / under side should be golden in color. Serve hot with coconut chutney / hing chutney / tomato chutney / sambar / any gravy dishes of your choice.

Thengai Chutney (Tamil style coconut chutney)

A delicious chutney, goes well with kuzhi paniyaram / idli / dosa /vada / ponagal varieties. Recipe from Sabitha Radhakrishna’s cookery book Aharam.

Serves: 2 – 3

Ingredients

1 cup (75 g – 5 tablespoons) grated coconut

2 green chillies (small size), chopped

½ - inch piece ginger, chopped

½ teaspoon thick tamarind paste (1/2 – ¾ teaspoon)

1 tablespoon dry roasted channa dal (Bengal gram dal)

½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)

2 tablespoon water

Method

In a pan or iron kadai, dry roast channa dal on a medium to low heat for 8 – 10 minutes (without oil) until slight color changes.

Transfer all the ingredients into a small mixer bowl and make a smooth paste with 2 tablespoon water. Finally, adjust the consistency of the chutney with extra 50 ml (1/4 cup) water if required. Or serve as thick chutney.

For seasoning:

2 teaspoon oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

½ teaspoon urad dal (split black gram dal)

4 curry leaves

Method

Heat oil in a tadka pan or a small pan. Add mustard seeds. When they crackle, add urad dal and curry leaves. Fry on a low heat for 2 – 4 minutes until fragrant and crisp. Pour this seasoning over chutney and serve with kuzhi paniyaram / dosa / idli / vada / pongal ..