Photo: Paniyarams ready for battle!
What do you call Paniyarams in English – Great Balls of Food? Ever since I was a kid, I used to love Paniyarams just by thier shape and size. Even though they look sinister, it’s hard to resist once you’ve tasted it. It’s another variant of the Dosa, made out of almost the same ingredients; crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Best eaten piping hot on a morning or on a cold evening.
They are made of a special vessel / pan with Kuzhis or semi-circular pits where the batter is poured. Chutneys go well along with them. The ones in the photos, they were made with the same batter used in Uthappams.
I know it by three names:
GundBangla (I don’t know from which language, maybe Telugu)
Paddu in Kannada
Paniyaram in Tamil
The magic formula is here -
You’ll need:
- Raw Rice 1 cup
- Boiled Rice 1 cup
- Husked Black Gram Dhal 1/2 cup
- Bengal Gram Dhal 1 tablespoon
- Green Chillies 10
- Salt 2 teaspoons
- Finely cut coconut pieces 1 tablespoon (optional)
- Onion 1/2 cup
- Coriander leaves, chopped 1 tablespoon
- Cooking Soda 1/4 teaspoon
Utensils:
- Paniyaram Pan
- Ladle
Serves – 4 to 5 people
How to:
Soak dhal separately for one hour and the rice varieties together for two hours. After than grind together with green chilles to a nice batter. Add salt and allow it to ferment for about 10 – 12 hours (best done overnight).
The next day, add coconut pieces, onion, coriander leaves. Mix well and pour into the Paniyaram pan. Fry it on medium fire with the top covered and on both sides till it becomes golden brown on the top. Serve hot with Chutney.
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Sweet Variant – Banana Paniyaram
You’ll need:
Raw Rice 1 cup
Ripe Banana 1 big
Grated Jaggery 1 cup
Cardamom powder a pinch
Oil or Ghee for frying
How to:
Soak Rice for 3 hours. After that grind it to a smooth paste. Add Banana and Jaggery at the end of grinding mix, cardamom powder and little cooking soda. Pour immediately in Paniyaram pan. Fry on a medium flame on both sides
13 comments ↓
nice!
Sid
In telugu, these are called “gunta punugulu” – gunta means pit, punugulu are fried dough balls…
These are called “gunta punugulu” in telugu. gunta means pit, and punugulu are fried dough balls…
Tahnks Murali, I’m tamil and have never heard any Tamilian called it GundBangla. It’s just in my family that we canll it by this name and I have seemed to like it.
I’ve got an explanation for it – Gundu in Tamil means plump; Seeing a paniyaram makes me want to say GundBangla..it’s fun!
[...] had posted last week on Paniyaram aka great balls of food
. Now I was lucky enough to find a video on Youtube which gives a pretty [...]
The photo looks awsome…Though I like the spicy variety, I love the sweet variety with coconut scrapings etc..
I like your banana paniyaram, I want to try it !
It is so easy to make the paniyaram, from the left out idli batter and it tastes great !
Check this link below, if you are looking to buy a paniyaram pan -
http://www.perfectpeninsula.com/paniyaram.htm
There are more paniyaram recipes here -
http://www.perfectpeninsula.com/recipe/
I tried couple of recipes from this web site and i like it.
Check it out !
The sweet paniyarams in malayalam are called unniappam.
@Ramachandra – I love to sweet one too!
@Shurthi – Thanks for the links
@Sam – Thanks for the info.
The Danes to ok your paniyaram pans and used them to make apple pancake balls that they call “aebleskiver”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86bleskiver
Aebleskiver were originally made as a breakfast food with wheat flour, eggs, water and minced apples, but now several kinds exist. Here’s something that’s close to a traditional Danish recipe:
For 24 aebleskiver:
2 eggs, with yolk and white separated
1 cup wheat flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup buttermilk (or 3/4 cup milk with 4 oz. butter)
1 minced apple (you can leave the peel on)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (for batter)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (for apple)
Vegetable oil (or butter) to grease pan
Chop up apple and add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; mix until extract and apple juices cover the apple pieces. Beat egg whites until stiff (or at least foamy), then set aside. Beat rest of ingredients until batter is very smooth. Fold in egg whites.
Heat your paniyaram pan until drops of water make a sizzling sound when they hit the hot iron. Add about 1/4 teaspoon oil to each cup (enough to coat cup thoroughly), then pour each cup 2/3 full with batter. By the time you have finished filling the last cup, the first cup is ready to be “flipped”.
Flipping a cup of cooked batter involves using a pointed utensil (knife, fork, knitting needle, chopstick, etc.) to pus or pull the cooked part of the batter (which is now a half-sphere) so the uncooked batter in the center runs out into the pan and is cooked, thus making the pancake ball. But before you flip it, you add a teaspoon of the minced apple-vanilla extract mixture, so it cooks inside the pancake ball!
By the time you’ve finished flipping the last aebleskiver, the first is ready to be pulled from the pan. Serve hot with berry jam or maple syrup. Delicious!
Oh! I forgot to say that when I mentioned “beat rest of ingredients”, that doesn’t include the vegetable oil (which you need to grease the pan) or the minced apples!
Thanks a ton for this wonderful recipe. Is this copyrighted. Maybe I can include it as n article in the blog.
Thanks again
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