If you love cooking and are into the habit of analysing what you eat at places around some point you would have tasted something and said " Hey, I think I know how this could be made". That's how I ended up making these. I was introduced to Kuzhipaniyarams by a senior at my institute. She said there was this joint next to the library in Adayar that served traditional dishes of Tamil Nadu. It was a joint managed by women and as we entered we saw it was tightly packed. As I wandered around observing the women cooking in their village style kitchen my eyes fell over these Kuzhipaniyarams. I ended up buying them coz they looked cute. What attracted me was the fact they were made in these iron pans we used back home for 'Unniyappams' - a traditional Kerala snack.
I kept telling my mom to try it out but she showed no interest. I got these iron pans from mom after my wedding so I decided to go ahead and try these snacks. So here's a sneak preview.
Ingredients for Kuzhipaniyaram
Raw rice- 1 cup
Boiled rice- 1 cup
Urad dal- 1 cup
Onion- chopped 2
Gree chilies- chopped 3-4
Curry leaves- 2 sprigs
Mustard seeds- 2 tsp
Oil- for frying
Salt- to taste
Directions
Soak the rice and dal for 6 hrs. Some suggest that you soak the rice and dal separately but I did it together. The similarity in proportions of rice and dal also makes some feel its the same batter for dosa so if you feel too lazy to grind your own batter you could skip making the batter and can buy ready made dosa batter. Grind the soaked rice and lentil without using water. Add salt and leave it to ferment for 10 hrs. I usually leave it whole night.
Now in a pan heat some oil add some mustard seeds. While they splutter add the chopped onions, green chillies and curry leaves and saute well. Add these sauted ingredients to the ground batter.
Heat the pan for making Kuzhipaniyaram. This pan has dents that helps it form balls of the batter poured. These dents are called 'kuzhi' in malayalam and tamil therefore the snack gets the name ' kuzhipaniyaram'- which means fried in dents.
Pour the batter into each dentss and cook in slow fire. When they have become crispy turn to the other side using a fork or a skewer. Cook both side and drain them on a towel or napkin.
Do not leave the paniyarams in the pan for long even after you are done with cooking because they take in the oil left in the pan and becomes too oily so drain them as soon as you are done.
My neighbours loved these the most and my sis is waiting to taste them. She will be here today and I have some batter saved. I had tomato chutney with these paniyarams the recipe of which I will post tommorow.
