Unniyappam - South Indian Rice flour Fritters (Sweet)

 Unniyappam - South Indian Rice flour Fritters (Sweet) 

 

From my Mom's Kitchen

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 1 cup

Jaggery - 100 gms

Water - 1 cup or as required

Diced Coconut  - ½ cup, fried in ghee

Mashed ripe bananas - ½ cup (small, slightly sour, yellow bananas are most suitable)

Dry Ginger Powder - ½ tea spoon

Bicarbonate of soda – ½ tea spoon

Cardamom – 4-5 pods (crushed)

Oil- for frying (Any Vegetable  Oil or Coconut oil)

Instructions:

In a large bowl, take the rice flour. Mix in the cardamom, ginger powder, Bicarbonate of soda and mix well. Now add the diced coconut pieces. Mix in the mashed banana.

Melt jaggery in 1 cup water till it melts.  Drain the melted jaggery and add it to rice flour mix. The batter should be of dropping consistency. If the batter is too thick, add more water to loosen it. 

Heat oil in Uniyappa chatti ( a specialized pan with small sunken molds) When the oil is hot, take table spoonfuls of the batter and drop into hot oil  in the specific molds and deep fry till golden brown.

Enjoy the warm unniyappams with tea or coffee and just on its own.

Its better to finish these fritters in a couple of days time. Not good for long term preservation.

Additional tips:

To achieve more softness, you can use equal amounts of rice and wheat flour. Also you can increase the amount of mashed banana to one cup.

You can also add lightly toasted sesame seeds and chopped nuts to the batter.Be careful while using sesame seeds. They might splutter while frying.

If you dont have the special pan mentioned above, you can deep fry these in a regular pan. It may not have the traditional look of a unniyappam, but will taste just the same.

Happy Snacking!!