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Nei appam recipe – Karthigai deepam recipes

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nei appam recipe

Nei appam is made in several festivals like Gokulashtami, karthigai deepam etc. A special recipe made with rice as main ingredient.

Ghee is used in this nei appam preparation as the name indicates. This is the first time I am trying the Nei appam / Neyyappam. Mom always used to make appam with wheat flour and banana. Its a deep fried one. Or we make sweet paniyaram. This recipe for nei appam sounded interesting with only rice,jaggery and coconut. Thought this would be helpful for many of you as Karthigai deepam is nearing!

I have beautiful memories about karthigai deepam. It is the most beautiful festivals according to me those days. Two eyes wont be enough to see all the lamps lit all over. Mom had a few collections of lamps with her. Few pithalai vilakku of different shapes, few special lamps made out of  ‘maa-kall’ and a lot other clay lamps. Every year, she buys few new lamps to add in the collections and its a must for her. My MIL also have similar collections and she lights tea light candles mostly to decorate.

nei-appam-recipe

I have only some with me now and I too use tea light candles to fill the spots. Me and my brother always save few crackers, flower pots and sparkles that dad buys for Diwali and light it on the day of karthigai deepam. So we will be excited. One of my aunt told and taught about a rare and unique karthigai fire works (Karthigai pori – Here pori means spark) especially done for this festival. Its made with the dried palm flowers. Its a bit dangerous but my bro once bravely did that.

Not to forget the karthigai pori varieties and pori urundai made. I used to ignore it those days, but craving for those now 🙂 Now to the recipe, I got an idea about the recipe from Shanthi’s Thaligai. But adapted the recipe to suit my taste. Let’s learn how to prepare nei appam, below are the step by step pictures and instructions.

Click here to read the recipe in tamil

nei-appam-recipe
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5 from 1 vote

Nei appam

Nei appam is made in several festivals like Gokulashtami, karthigai deepam etc. A special recipe made with rice as main ingredient.
Course Sweets
Cuisine Indian
Prep Time 3 hours
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings 15
Cup measurements

Ingredients

  • Raw rice – 1 cup
  • Jaggery – 1 cup
  • Coconut grated – 4 tbsp
  • cardamom – 1
  • Cooking soda – 3 pinches
  • Salt – 1/8 tsp
  • Ghee – As needed

Instructions

  • First soak rice for 3 hours.  Grind it with less water to a thick paste.
  • Melt the jaggery with very little water and strain to remove any impurities. (If it is pure, you can add as such to rice and mix or grind too). Add it to the ground rice batter and mix well. Keep aside.
  • At the time of preparing, add salt, powdered elachi, cooking soda, coconut and mix well. Heat a paniyaram pan and add 1 tsp of ghee to each partition and pour the mixed  batter to fill each one. Apparently one can deep fry too in ghee.
  • Cook covered for 1 – 2 minutes in low flame. Turn with the paniyaram skewer or a spoon and add more ghee if dry.
  • Cook for another minute or two in medium flame until golden brown and inside of the paniyaram gets cooked. Collect the paniyarams in the serving bowl.

Notes

  • I leave the sides of the mixer which has rava like batter stuck to it without wiping. I like the texture it gives to the paniyaram. Though we grind the batter smooth the rava like rice add a nice texture to the paniyarams.
  • If you add more water while making jaggery syrup, then the batter may get watery, so be careful while melting the jaggery. In emergencies if your batter gets too watery, then add wheat flour to balance it.
  • You can also add the jaggery as such to the batter without melting, but make sure it has no impurities.
  • If you don’t have paniyaram pan, heat about one or two inch of oil/ ghee in a kadai and use one laddle to spoon the batter. You can make only one at a time. 
  • Grated coconut also is an important ingredient to get a soft paniyaram.
  • You can grind along the rice too.You can add a mashed banana in this to get pillow soft paniyarams.
  • Cooking soda helps in cooking the inside of the paniyarams and also helps in  softness.
  • Be generous in adding ghee otherwise it may not get even browned. If you are guilty in adding a lot of ghee, then you can mix sesame oil and use generously.
  • Stays as such even after cooled down.Use indolium or iron paniyaram pans for even and perfect browning. Don’t skim on ghee or oil.
  • This needs no fermentation, still making the batter an hour or more prior is better.

How to make nei appam method

  • First soak rice for 3 hours.  Grind it with less water to a thick paste.
step 1
  • Melt the jaggery with very little water and strain to remove any impurities. (If it is pure, you can add as such to rice and mix or grind too). Add it to the ground rice batter and mix well. Keep aside.
step 2
  • At the time of preparing, add salt, powdered elachi, cooking soda, coconut and mix well. Heat a paniyaram pan and add 1 tsp of ghee to each partition and pour the mixed  batter to fill each one. Apparently one can deep fry too in ghee.
step 3
  • Cook covered for 1 – 2 minutes in low flame. Turn with the paniyaram skewer or a spoon and add more ghee if dry.
step 4
  • Cook for another minute or two in medium flame until golden brown and inside of the paniyaram gets cooked. Collect the paniyarams in the serving bowl.
step 5

Crispy outside and soft inside nei appams. Enjoy!

nei appam

Reader Interactions

Comments

  11. jeyashrisuresh

    My mom makes a similar one but she deep fries that mostly which i can eat almost 5-6 at a time. I never tried this as i thought it has to be deep fried. Now i can make this guilt free one in paiyaram pan too. Nicely captured

    Reply

  22. Unknown

    One point…You know what is special about your blog?? Even the step wise pictures are very neat and clean, almost inspiring me to do the same in my kitchen.. 🙂 I have actually seen old dented vessels, dirty stove tops, unclean fingernails, and spilled ingredients on other blogs !! :O

    I have been cooking for almost a decade now, and already know most of your recipes.. but still i visit your blog everyday just to enjoy the neatness and final presentation!! 🙂

    I click my food pics and send them to my friends/family alone, no patience to maintain a blog, but I wouldn't dare to click my stove or my kitchen counter !!

    Love your blog! 🙂

    Reply

  25. Usha Shivshankar

    Raji,ur nei appam looks perfect.
    I make this way . I am sharing my experience.
    1 cup raw rice-soaked for 3-4 hrs,1 cup powdered jaggery,1 banana,3 pods cardamom, 1/4 cup grated coconut.
    Grind soaked rice well add cocnut,cardamon,jaggery and banana.Grind smooth. Make appams as usual. i do not add soda.

    Reply

  33. Sandhya

    i tried this at home. it was too dry. i dunno wr i missed it. but i dint want to waste the batter. so i baked them in muffin tray greased with ghee. it tasted even better.

    Reply

  34. Raks anand

    Add more cooking soda and coconut, some time the variety of rice that matters. If still happens and run to trouble, you can trouble shoot by adding mashed ripe banana which makes it pillow soft…

    Reply

  52. SUMATHY SUBRAMANIAN

    My nei appam just stuck to the pan. What could have been the problem? I made it very low heat, and it didnt make at all & kept sticking to the pan. Why?

    Reply

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