Unniyappam - A Traditional Kerala Snack

The monsoons have started bringing along another bout of cold and cough in our household. It’s Adhya who is sick this time, kids in the day care they come down with everything and bring all of it home, and everybody else in the house catch whatever they bring. It’s a drag a never ending cycle.

My husband feels that Adhya should have started preschool a little later as she keeps getting sick. But I personally feel that kids who are home with nannies got to go through the whole immunity-building process at a later age. However sick kids and a good helper at home is no reason for a late post. I have got to blame it all on my laziness. I love to do the cooking and photo shoot it’s the sitting down and writing part that I keep for later and never seems to happen.

Anyway this post was long overdue, with Onam around the corner looks like it’s the best time to post a recipe for unniyappam. Unniyappam is a traditional Kerala snack made of ripe bananas, rice flour, jaggery and coconut bits. There are many variations of these deep fried treats especially in south India. You have paniyaram a common breakfast dish served both in a sweet and savoury version. Also it’s quite similar to the Danish pancakes (Ebelskivers). Unniyappam evokes nostalgic feelings of school vacations. My mother used to make them for us especially during school vacations something for us to munch on while sitting at home. Nowadays if I see some over ripe bananas lying in the house I make unniappams with them, Adhya loves them however Alan is it yet to develop a taste for it. So here’s the recipe for some mouthwatering unniyappams the way my mom makes them!

Unniyappam Recipe:

Notes:

• I have used the common bannas (Cavendish banana) available however the original recipe calls for cheru pazham (palayankodan pazham).
• I have used double horse rice powder; my mom used homemade rice powder.
• The atta (whole wheat) flour gives them a nice texture and taste than rice flour alone
• The unniyappams can be stored in air tight containers for upto 2-3 days.