Vellai Appam
Vellai Appam is a traditional crispy deep fried snack made using ground rice and urad dal, typically made on festivals like Deepavali and Karthikai Deepam.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Raw Rice
- 0.5 cup Whole Urad Dal
- 2 tbsp Curd
- 1 inch Ginger finely chopped
- 7-8 Black Peppercorn roughly pound
- 2 tbsp finely chopped Coconut pieces
- 1-2 Green Chillies finely chopped
- 2 sprigs Curry Leaves finely chopped
- Coriander Leaves finely chopped
- 1/4 tsp Asafoetida or Hing
- 1 tsp Mustard Seeds for tempering
- 1 tsp Split Urad Dal for tempering
- Oil for deep-frying and tempering
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Soak raw rice and whole urad dal separately for 4-5 hours.
- Drain water from soaked urad dal and grind with one or two ice cubes to a fine and fluffy batter.
- Drain water from soaked rice. Grind rice with minimal water to a coarse paste (Rava or sooji like consistency)
- Mix both the batter. Add salt on top (don't mix the salt). Let this batter ferment overnight or for 6 to 8 hours.
- Mix the batter well once it is fermented.
- In a small frying pan, heat 2 teaspoon oil and prepare a tempering of mustard seeds and split urad dal.
- Add this tempering to the batter. Add curd, asafoetida, finely chopped green chillies, roughly pound black pepper, finely chopped ginger, curry leaves, coriander and finely chopped coconut pieces.
- Mix the batter well. Do not add water. The batter should be thick, however should be able to pour from a spoon.
- Heat oil in a kadai. Using a small round ladle or spoon, pour the vellai appam in hot oil.
- Fry vellai appam on medium heat. Flip over once it gets golden from the sides.
- Once vellai appam is golden in colour, drain them onto a paper towel. Serve hot with coconut chutney.
Notes
- Grind rice to a coarse consistency to yield crisp Vellai Appam
- Ensure that the batter is not thin, as excess water would make vellai appam to absorb more oil
- Ferment the batter for best results. If in a hurry, let it rest for at least 2 hours and add curd.
- Fry vellai appam in medium heat to get uniform golden colour.