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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Chettinad Vellai paniyaram




No chettinad recipe pages will be complete without a note for its traditional delicacy”Vellai paniyaram”.Even if one doesn’t find time to make it themselves, should at least taste it in the traditional chettinad restaurants mushrooming in almost all big cities and towns.Vellai paniyaram will have its place in all the chettiar functions big or small. Though the ingredients will show it very simple, much depends on the way it is prepared. Much care should be taken while preparing. When I was new to the kitchen doing this was a nightmare for me. Now with experience, I have mastered all the tricks of making a perfect Paniyaram. With the help of modern networking technology, I am happy that I can share the tricks with the newcomers in correcting the small mistakes which will come in the beginning. Care should be taken right from the selection of rice. I remember during weddings, a month before itself the old people at home will be buying small quantity of different rice and checking which rice comes good in making paniyarams .But now we don’t find time and energy to do all those things., so I am discovering techniques to correct it even if the rice is not the most appropriate one. In this blog, I will give a note about it. Going through all my stories of the difficulties, don’t be afraid of making an attempt , since the taste of the paniyaram is worth all the trouble in the world. Sometimes you may be lucky enough to get it perfect in the first trial itself.

Ingredients
Raw rice-1 cup (usually small fat rice little cheaper one is good)
Urudh dhal -1/4 cup(usually in chettinad we will take rice to the rim level of uzhakku or measuring cup and then fill urudh dhal to the heap level of the uzhakku(.I have found urudh dhal to be little less than ¼ cup in that case)
Soak both together for 1 hour and grind it to a very smooth paste. Add the required amount of salt while grinding itself.
Consistency of the batter can be little more watery than dosa batter. To make it watery use little milk
Keep a medium size little bit flat tawa in the stove .Pour 1 ½ cups of oil. Keep the flame in medium. Make sure that at no stage the oil gets overheated. When the oil is hot using a medium sized spoon(little bigger than a table spoon) pour one spoon batter into the oil, the paniyaram will immediately rise now with the help of the laddle used to take the paniyaram out, pour the heated oil in the tawa on the top of the paniyaram.This will help the paniyaram to get a flowery border. Within a minute turn it upside down allow it to cook for 1 more minute and remove it from oil.

Allow the paniyaram to cool and now break the paniyaram and see that it is cooked inside also.
If not cook the next one little more.But the paniyaram should never be roasted.

Sometimes the paniyaram will rise like a ball, and then the problem will be either the oil is too hot or your batter is too thick. If you feel it is too thick pour little milk to make it watery.

Sometimes u may feel that the paniyaram drinks oil then the mistake is that u have added too much urudh dhal or your urud dhal is very good in quality. In that case you can add little idly batter, or rice flour.
If you still find any difficulty feel free to leave a comment
Vellai paniyaram will be very tasty with thakkali thuvayal or milagai chutney.
I will come to that section of cookery from my next blog

25 comments:

Uma said...

Achi, I've heard from my mom that if vella paniyaram raises like a ball, it means we added more urud dhal and in that case we have to add rice flour and not idli batter. Is that right?

Uma said...

US folks can use "long grains rice from walmart" to make this vellai paniyaram better.

Solai Chidambaram said...

Yes Uma you are right.Idly batter contains more of rice and less of urudh dhal.So instead of searching for rice flour,I suggested Idly batter.For Diwali I too made paniyaram out of Basmathi rice.It came out well

Arati said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Poornima said...

Hi Achi,
For Diwali i thought of making vellai panniyaram and i knew for sure i can find it in ur blog, i am going to try it on sunday, thanks for posting this recipe.
I found your photo used in this below link and i just hope ppl should put their own photos rather than taking it from other blogs, i love ur blog and wanted to let you know.
http://senthil.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/09/vellai-paniyaram-recipe.htm

pradeep said...

Aachi, I remember my grandma making chodi with vellai paniayaram. Do you have a recipie for chodi also posted on the site?

chamu said...

madam can i prepare the batter 2 or 3 hours before and keep in referigerator???wil it taste sour at the time wen i pour in oil???

Solai Chidambaram said...

Yes chamundeeswari,You can make the batter a few hours before and refrigerate it for maximum 6 hours.Now a days people store it much longer.During diwali some grind the batter the previous day evening itself and store it.But I always make it fresh

chamu said...

thank u aachi...but i came to know if i refrigerate it and pour batter in oil it will take more oil inside it...Give me some good receipe for yam(senakilangu)poriyal and suggest rice which would go with it....?

Solai Chidambaram said...

chamundeeswari,I have written a recipe on chenaikizhangu meen varuval under vegetable curries.It is a good one

chamu said...

thank u aachi...but i came to know if i refrigerate it and pour batter in oil it will take more oil inside it...Give me some good receipe for yam(senakilangu)poriyal and suggest rice which would go with it....?

chamu said...

ya just now that aachi..it sounds to be more delicious i will try this tommorrow..Can u suggest would go with this other than curd rice/rasam rice?Coz to pack n give the lunch this two rice wont be good..
post us the receipe for PAAL PANIYARAM

Akila Shankar said...

Hello Achi,

Hope you are doing good. Here in Detroit, we celebrate pillayar nombu with all 140 families together. Everybody picks a lot and cook the item for the function. I got Modhagam - 75 counts. I have no idea how to make it. So can you please post the recipe for Modhagam, so that i could practice before the event.

Have a wonderful week
Thanks
Akila N

Akila Shankar said...

Hello Achi,

Hope you are doing good. Here in Detroit, we celebrate pillayar nombu with all 140 families together. Everybody will pick a lot and cook for the function. I got Modhagam - 75 counts. I have no idea how to make it. So can you please post the recipe for modhagam, so that i could practice prior a head of the event.

Have a wonderful week
Thanks
Akila N

Solai Chidambaram said...

yes Akila,I too want to try modagam.My mom is best in making it.I will get the recipe from her.i will try and if comes good will blog it before pillayar nonbu.There is almost more than a month left right

Uma Alagappan said...

Hi Achi,
I follow the exact same proportions suggested by u to make velai panniyaram. But the paniyaram sticks to the bottom of the pan. What am I doing wrong. Please help.

Uma Alagappan

Solai Chidambaram said...

Uma,The quality of rice pays a major role in paniyaram.Kattavellai rice in chettinad is said to be good.try keeping the heat in medium.

Uma Alagappan said...

Achi,

Thks for your quick response.

Is there an alternative to Kattavellai rice as we won't be able to get it in Melbourne.

Uma Alagappan

Unknown said...

Hello Aachi,
The trouble shooting for Vellai paniyaram was really very good. Thanks for capturing all the details in your website. I was able to correct the dough to make good Vellai Paniyaram by using the hints from your website.
--Thamilarasi Annamalai

Aruna said...

Hi, your recipes are awesome! can't wait to try this. got a quick question. I am staying in the U.S. can I use the Ponni raw rice or our normal basmathi rice to prepare this?

Solai Chidambaram said...

Aruna,In US you can use 1/2 basmathi and half idly rice for paniyaram,else it becomes sdry very fast.

Meena's musings said...

Achi paniyaram slightly sticks to tawa and I need to manually make it come to surface with laddle.
Could u coin in the problem....

Solai Chidambaram said...

In my recent trip to US Inmade paniyaram with sona masoori.It came out excellent and never went wrong.So people who can get sona masoori can use it.

Solai Chidambaram said...

Use a small tawa filled with more than half quantity oil and slowly pour the batter before the oil gets too hot and wait for few seconds then with the laddle pour oil from the tawa on top of the paniyarams and try to turn. Usually it will come.If not i think it may be due to the quality of rice if your measurements are correct Kaatchi

Meena's musings said...

Thanks for the reply aachi...
Yes tawa was hot...