
Appam holds a special place as a neivedhyam dish during the Krishna Jayanthi festival, especially in the evening when we invite Lord Krishna into our homes. Nei Appam, a renowned delicacy from Kerala, is a popular choice for various occasions, including Avani Avittam, Karthigai Deepam, and other auspicious events. It also serves as a delightful evening or after-school snack for children.
The key ingredients in Appam are rice and jaggery. Initially, rice is ground to a thick consistency, and then jaggery juice is added to create the Appam batter. If the batter becomes too thin, a small amount of wheat flour can be used to adjust the consistency. It's worth noting that Appam can also be made with wheat flour and jaggery alone, omitting the rice flour. Nei Appam is a straightforward neivedhyam offering suitable for any festival or auspicious occasion.
You may also want to try :
- Rava Appam - Rava Appam is a sweet which can be made instantly. We usually make this for the Karthigai Deepam. Unlike the conventional appam, Rava appam doesn't require soaking and grinding process. It's quick, easy and tasty.
- Vellai Appam - Vellai Appam is a traditional prasad made for special occasions/festivals like "Karthigai Deepam" or Diwali. Vellai Appam is deep fried rice crepes.
- Aval Kesari - Aval Kesari is similar to our conventional Kesari but made using Aval (Poha / Flattened Rice). This Kesari is quick to make with few available ingredients. This can be served as neivedhyam for the Gokhulashtami. This can also be served as a dessert for any festivals /occassions
Recipe Card for Nei Appam
Nei Appam | Ghee Appam
Equipments Needed
- Paniyaram Pan
Ingredients
- 1 cup Raw Rice 1 cup = 250 ml
- 1 cup Jaggery grated
- 2 tablespoon Grated Coconut
- 2 nos Banana small size
- ¼ teaspoon Cardamom Powder
- 1 pinch Baking Soda optional
Instructions
- Rinse the rice twice and Soak the raw rice in water for an hour. After 1 hour, drain the water and add it to the mixer
- Grind it in mixer to a fine paste without adding water. Now add grated coconut, banana, cardamom powder to the mixer
- Grind it to a fine paste. Finally add jaggery and give a pulse or two. If you grind it more, the jaggery will dilute the appam batter. Now our appam batter is ready.
- Now a days we have appakarai(Non stick Appam pan) which makes our job easier. Keep the nonstick appam pan in the flame and add little ghee to each kuzhi. When the pan is hot, take a small ladle and fill ¾th of each hole with the batter.
- Let the Appam cook for a while and then when it turns golden brown color, remove the appam from the oil, and place it in a paper towel to drain excess oil. Repeat the above steps for the rest of the flour
- The yummy Appam is ready for neivedhyam and for serving
Video
Notes
- Cooking soda helps in making appam softer and fluffy. We can also alternate with eno salt or we can also ignore this as this is only optional.
- If the appam starts to break in the oil, add 2 teaspoon of wheat flour or rice flour to the ground appam flour and then try again
- We used to get good quality jaggery few years back which do not need any straining of sand or stones. But nowadays most of the jaggery has stones or sand in it. So instead of grinding jaggery with the rice flour, we can add jaggery to pan and add just a teaspoon of water and allow it to dissolve and when the jaggery gets dissolved, we can strain the jaggery and add it to the rice batter and mix well. This way we can get rid of the stones.
- Always first add ghee before pouring appam batter in each mould. that way the batter will not stick to bottom and after it gets cooked, it will automatically float so we can flip and cook on other side
Nutritional Info
Method with step by step pictures :
- Rinse the rice twice and Soak the raw rice in water for an hour. After 1 hour, drain the water and add it to the mixer
- Grind it in mixer to a fine paste without adding water. Now add grated coconut, banana, cardamom powder to the mixer
- Grind it to a fine paste. Finally add jaggery and give a pulse or two. If you grind it more, the jaggery will dilute the appam batter. Now our appam batter is ready.
- Now a days we have appakarai(Non stick Appam pan) which makes our job easier. Keep the nonstick appam pan in the flame and add little ghee to each kuzhi. When the pan is hot, take a small ladle and fill ¾th of each hole with the batter. Let the Appam fry for a while and then when it turns golden brown color, remove the appam from the oil, and place it in a paper towel to drain excess oil. Repeat the above steps for the rest of the flour
- The yummy Appam is ready for neivedhyam and for serving
![]() |
Appam |