Nei Appam, Ghee Appam

          Happy Karthigai Deepam, Festival Of Lights, it falls on 12th December this year, we light our houses with lots of mud lamps and as with any other festival, we make some yummy food too. I have already posted the traditional Pori Urundai that we make on that day, Nei Appam is also another sweet dish that is made on this day. The main ingredient for this is rice and sugar and of course as the name suggests 'nei' or ghee is used for frying these appams and they smell and taste very delicious..

Need To Have

• Raw Rice/Pacha Arisi - 1/2 cup
• Grated Jaggery - 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons
• Cardamom - 2
• Dry Ginger Powder/Sukku Podi - 1/4 teaspoon
• Mashed Banana - 1/4 cup, from 1 small banana
• Baking Soda - 1/4 teaspoon
• Grated Coconut - 1 tablespoon
• Ghee For Frying

Method

          Wash and soak the rice for 2 hours, then drain and keep. Heat the jaggery with a tablespoon of water till it melts completely, then drain for impurities and keep.

          Now grind the rice along with jaggery syrup, ginger powder and cardamom, remove and let the batter ferment for 2 hours.

          After 2 hours, add the grated coconut, mashed banana and baking soda, mix and leave it for 1/2 and hour.

          Heat the paniyaram pan, drizzle about 1/2 teaspoon of ghee into each of the moulds, then spoon the batter till almost full, cover and cook on low heat till the top sets and the bottom turns golden brown. Then flip it and cook the other side till it turns golden, add a few drops of ghee around the flipped appams. Remove, repeat with the rest of the batter.

Note
I got 18 appams for the above quantity.
If you drain the rice properly and grind as mentioned, then the batter consistency will be correct, it should be like a thick pancake batter or dosa batter, if it's a little thin, then mix in some rice flour.
Adding banana makes the appam very soft, but you can make it without it too.
If you don't have the paniyaram pan, then you can deep fry appams.
If you don't want to use only ghee, then you can use a mixture of sesame oil and ghee.
Cook the appams on low heat, otherwise the outside will brown fast and the inside will not be cooked properly.
They taste very good when warm but we can have them when cold also, the texture is still soft.