Traditionally rice and jaggery is ground with a local variety of banana - Palayangodan or steamed nenthira pazham. Palayangodan is a small yellow banana which is a little tart to taste.
My cousin in Bangalore uses the green variety of banana - robusta in her appam. So I realised that the taste might change a wee bit, but if either palayangodan or nenthiran is not available and you NEED to eat nei appam, what to do? Feel free to add other varieties of banana. After all - necessity is the mother of invention!!
image courtesy : Google Images
A special vessel called appa kara / unni appa chatti / paniyaram pan is used to make this sweet.
Rice - 1 cup
Jaggery - grated 1 cup
Banana - 2 palayangodan / 1 nenthiran steamed
Ghee - for deep frying
Til oil / nallennai / sesame oil - 1 tsp for each depression of the pan
Opt:
Cardamom - 2 pod, skin removed, seeds powdered
Slivers of coconut - 2 tbsp
Til seeds - 1 tsp
Wash and soak the rice for at least 1 hour.
Grind without much water intro a smooth thick paste.
Now add the jaggery and continue grinding. The batter will become loose.
At last add the bananas. And grind for 1 minute.
The batter must have the consistency of idly batter.
Transfer to a vessel and mix in the rest of the ingredients - chopped dry coconut, elaichi / cardamom and til seeds, if using.
Heat the appam kara.
First pour 1 tsp of til oil in each hole of the pan. This will prevent the batter from sticking. (grandmom's trick for her old iron appa kara, which I still follow for my non-stick variant!)
Then top with ghee.
Pour 1 ladle of batter into each hole and flip when the outside gets sealed.
Cook on a MEDIUM flame or the outside will burn and the inside will not be cooked.
Deep fry till golden brown.
Add more ghee , if you feel necessary, before frying the next batch.
Repeat with the rest of the batter.
Enjoy.
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