Unniyappam with Jack fruit
Unniyappam is a traditional sweet snack from Kerala, India that is typically made with rice flour, jaggery, mashed bananas, coconut, and cardamom powder. However, it can also be made with other ingredients, including jackfruit, a tropical fruit that is popular in South and Southeast Asia. Here's how to make Unniyappam with jackfruit
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw rice
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup wheatlets
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp porikadala or roasted chick peas, optional
- 10 pieces canned jackfruit or fresh
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 250 gm jaggery
- 5 nos cardamom
- Oil for frying
Fry Coconut
- 1-2 tbsp thinly sliced fresh coconut
- 1/2 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp ghee or butter
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
Instructions
- Rinse 1 cup of rice a couple of times with water. Soak the rice in an appropriate amount of water for 4-5 hours or overnight. Use any rice that is short-grained.
- Make a syrup with Jaggery by boiling it with 1/2 cup of water. Strain the syrup to remove any dirt in the Jaggery. If you are using dark brown sugar powder then you can skip this step.
- Heat 1 tbsp ghee in a small pan over medium heat. Add 2 tbsp thinly sliced coconut and stir frequently. When the coconut is golden brown switch off the heat. Add 1 tbsp roasted chickpeas, 1/2 tbsp sesame seeds and 1/2 tsp cumin seeds in to the coconut mixture. Set aside.
Making Thick Batter
- Drain the water from the rice, then put the soaked rice in the grinder container. Add jackfruit, banana, cardamom, salt, jaggery syrup (dark brown sugar) to the grinder. Use just enough coconut milk to grind all together into a paste. You don't need to grind into a fine paste, when you rub the batter between your fingers it should have tiny crumps, rava like consistency in the rice grains.
- Now pour the ground batter into a large bowl, then add 1/2cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup wheatlets. Mix all together to make a thick smooth batter. Add remaining coconut milk or water if needed to make thick batter.
- Cover the batter and let it rest for at least 30 minutes or more. If you keep it in the fridge for 2-3 hrs it will be more softer.
- Remove the lid and add fried coconut, sesame seeds, cumin seeds mixture with ghee, 1/4 tsp baking soda and mix it very well.
Making Unniyappam
- Heat enough oil into unniyappam chatti. When the oil is hot, reduce the flame to medium heat. Using a spoon pour batter into each of the chatti moulds till 3/4 full.
- Cook one side until the base is golden and then turn over a couple of times for cooking evenly. Once all sides of Unniyappam are brown then remove it from the oil and place the appam on a kitchen paper towel to absorb excess oil.
- Repeat the same for remaining batter. You may need to add oil in between batches
- Serve the Unniyappams warm with tea or coffee
Notes
- Make sure the batter is not too thin or too thick. It should be thick enough to coat a spoon, but not so thick that it becomes difficult to pour into the pan.
- Resting the batter for at least 30 minutes will allow the flour mixture to absorb the liquid, resulting in a softer texture.
- Make sure the pan is hot enough before adding the batter. If the pan is not hot enough, the Unniyappams may not cook evenly and may not turn golden brown.
- Use a skewer or spoon to flip the Unniyappams carefully, without breaking them.
- Serve the Unniyappams warm, as they taste best when fresh.
- You can replace the jackfruit with banana.