Chakka Nei Appam

 

If you're a fan of traditional sweets than,  this recipe is definitely for you. Chakka nei appam or jackfruit kuzhi panniyaram often serves as Neiveidhyam or as an offering to God on suspicious day. I made this for Ganesha Chahurti as prasadham for Lord Ganesha. May His blessings be upon each and everyone of us. 

Coming back to the recepi, we were having jackruit in abundance here in the market and I bought some back for snacking. I served it as a fruit bowl for our breakfast and reserved some for making appam. Choose a ripe jackfruit for the recipe. To enhance the taste I reserved some chopped jackfruit pieces to add into the batter so that,  we could bite into the tiny bit of jackfruit in the appam. Those little addition enhance the taste and texture to the appam.

I have tried the same recepi by adding coconut pieces which goes well too but, I prefer the jackruit pieces better.  Different people different taste. Try both and let me know your preference. The sweet and fragrance jackfruit appam are great as tea time or even as breakfast. This soft, spongy and fluffy Kerala special sweets is absolutely delicious and will make others wanting for more. 

Ingredients 

1 cup raw rice 

1 tbsp year dhal

1 cup grated jaggery

3 cardamom pods

1 cup jackruit,deseeded & roughly chopped 

1/4 cup finely chopped jackfruit

1/4 tsp fenugreek

1/2 cup ghee

Pinch of salt 

Methods

Wash and soak rice with urad dhal and fenugreek seeds for at least 2 hours. 

Grind the soaked rice mixture with jaggery, cardamom pods and 1 cup chopped jackfruit by adding little water. Grind into smooth batter. 

Transfer batter to a large bowl, add salt and mix well. Cover with lid and rest the batter for at least 2 hours to ferment. 

Add the 1/4 cup of chopped jackfruit to the fermented batter and stir. 

Heat the kuzhi panniyaram pan over low heat and add 1 tbsp of ghee to each hole of the pan. 

Pour the batter into each hole and cook for 1-2 minutes and using a bamboo stick gently flip the appam to cook on the other side.  Let it cook for another 1-2 minutes till golden brown. Remove from the pan. 

Continue the process with the remaining batter. 

Serve with a hot cup of black tea or milk chai.