Navaratri Special: Unniappam/jaggery balls

Navaratri Special: Unniappam/jaggery balls

Stepped into the shoes of shaping unniappam during this festive season. This is quite different from MIL’s recipe and is what I experienced in childhood days. Purely made of pacheri/ raw rice with palayankodan banana and jaggery.

 Follow the steps described in http://www.achuscook.in/2014/06/jackfruit-unniappamjaggery-balls.html

Ingredients:

Raw rice powder – 2 cup

Jaggery – 1 ball

Palayankodan Banana – 6 -8 nos

Cardamom powder – 2 tsp

Baking soda – ¼ tsp

Ghee – 1 tbsp

For frying:

Coconut oil – ½ litre

Ghee – 2 tbsp

 Method:

Soak rice for 1 hour - dry it and powder finely. Shallow fry the flour for the nice aroma. Grind banana in a mixer to form a paste and keep aside. Melt jaggery with water (¼ glass of water ) and transfer to another bowl. Use a strainer to sieve it.

Take the first three ingredients in a vessel – add the grinded banana paste, the melted jaggery and rest of the ingredients to it. Keep aside for 3-4 hours to ferment it. Check the consistency – dough should be thick for your hands (not too thick and watery).

Heat oil in an appakara (special vessel to cook unniappams)/kadai/cheenachutty – allow it to boil - take a small amount of dough and put in the hot oil. Once cooked the sides will get dark brown color and rotate in the oil. 

Use a ladle to cook the other side. Transfer to another bowl with paper towel and repeat the process to make rest of the unniappams. Enjoy having sweet unniappam!