Unni Appams

Unni Appams - ISKCON

More Food for Gods.

While the use of jaggery covers nearly all of the Indian subcontinent, it is particularly famous in South Indian recipes. At the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple at Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala, one of the 108 Vaisnava Divya Desams, jaggery is a prominent ingredient in one of the main bhoga preparations offered to the Deity, Lord Mahavisnu on Anantasesa. Called Unni Appams, these spongy sweets are composed of rice flour, banana, jackfruit and jaggery, fried in ghee to a crispy golden brown. In Malayalam, 'unni' means small and 'appam' means rice cake.

Unni Appams

Ingredients:

Rice Flour - 2 cups
Maida (regular flour) - 1/2 cup
Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Ripe Banana - 1
Ripe Jackfruit - ½ cup
Shredded coconut - 1cup
Ghee 2 Tbl.

Fry the shredded coconut to a light brown and set aside. Heat 1 cup of water and add the jaggery to melt it. In another bowl mix the rice flour and maida. Add the melted jaggery along with the coconut and mix well. When the batter cools, fold the mashed banana and jackfruit into the batter, which should be the consistency of a dosa batter. Add a little milk or water if needed to get the desired consistency.

Lightly cover and let the batter sit for about 6 hours, or overnight. To cook, use ghee to lightly grease the holes of an unni appam pan or idli cooker. Fill with batter and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, then flip, cooking both sides to a crispy golden brown. Drain on paper, and offer warm.

Variations: You can add cardamom to the batter for a nice addition. If you want a lighter appam, add a pinch of baking powder to the batter just before cooking. You can also begin with raw rice, well soaked and mashed. This will give a denser appam.