Unniyappam

Ingredients

• Rice flour – 2 cups ( I used palappam podi)
• Wheat Flour – 1 cup
• Jaggery – 250-300gms
• Ripe banana – 2-3 (I used poovan pazham, refer notes for substitute)
• Coconut bits (thengakothu) – ½ cup
• Black sesame seeds – 1½ tbsp
• Baking soda – ½ – 1 tsp
• Ghee – 1 tbsp
• Oil – for deep frying (I used coconut oil)

Method

1. Add 1 cup water to jaggery and melt it. Strain the jaggery and let it cool completely.
2. Fry the black sesame seeds and coconut bits in ghee till it turns golden brown.
3. Grind the bananas first, add 2 tbsp of melted jaggery to the ground banana and grind again till you get a smooth paste.
4. Mix together rice flour, wheat flour,ground banana and melted jaggery. Add water little by little till you get the consistency of idli batter. You may need around 1-1.5 cups of water. Add fried coconut bits and sesame seeds and baking soda to the batter. MIx well.
5. Keep aside the batter for 30-45 mins. If the batter turns too thick after resting, add extra water to loosen it and stir well. Heat oil in appachatti (pan), when the oil is really hot, reduce the flame to low-medium. Drop tablespoons of batter to the chatti. Keep turning the unniyappams in between, till you get a golden-dark brown colour on both sides. Drain excess oil on tissue paper.

Notes

If you want a crispier unniyappam, substitute wheat flour with rice flour. I dont like the overpowering taste of banana in unniyappam, so the qty of banana used is less. If you like a dominant banana flavour, add extra banana. You can also use chiquita banana to make unniyappam. You can store it @ room temp for 2-3 days and in fridge for 1 week. Microwave a few seconds before serving. We got around 30-35 unniyappam with the above qty. You can also make the unniyappam without the unniyappa chatti, though the shape may not come out well.