Chettinad Vellai Paniyaram Recipe / Vellai Paniyaram

Vellai Paniyaram

Vellai Paniyaram is a traditional and classic recipe prepared at every Chettinad home especially for breakfast during special occasions and functions. One of the readers sent me a email requesting for authentic vellai paniyaram recipe. She mentioned that she had tried vellai paniyaram from many websites but they did not come out well. So I had pictured few importatnt steps for easy understaning and successful preparation. You require some patience and practice to attain best results. Please do read the tips given below.

Chettinad Vellai Paniyaram

Ingredients
Raw rice - 1 cup
Urad dal - 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Sugar - 1/2 tsp ( or to taste)
Milk ( cow's milk) - 1/2 cup or as required
Oil - to shallow fry paniyaram

Method
1. Soak rice and dal in water for at least 2 to 3 hours.
2. Grind rice and dal together in a mixer grinder until smooth like idli-dosa batter.
3. Add salt and sugar to taste to the batter, mix well and set aside batter for at least 1 hour.
4. Heat oil in a flat bottomed pan to shallow fry at highest temperature.
5. Meanwhile add required milk to the paniyaram batter, mix well and make the consistency of the paniyam batter to be thin and loose than dosa batter.
6. Take paniyaram batter in a slightly flat ladle, pour it in the centre of oil ( as shown in picture) and immediately reduce pan heat from highest to lowest.
7. Wait until flower like pattern forms on the sides of paniyaram and paniyaram starts to float on the oil( see picture).
8. Carefully flip the paniyaram to the other side and cook for few more minutes( see picture).
9. Drain paniyaram from oil and place on a paper towel.
10. Again increase pan heat to highest temperature and repeat steps from 6 to 9 with rest of paniyaram batter.
Serve hot Vellai paniyaram with
Chettinad red chilly chutney <--click for recipe

Tips
1. Its best to grind paniyaram batter in wet grinder as you can get smooth batter easily.
2. Vellai paniyaram has to be flat with flower like pattern on its sides. My granny says only a when batter texture( maavu padham) is right one can attain this.
3. First test texture of batter by making one paniyaram at a time. If the paniyaram comes out fat like bonda then batter is thick you need to loosen batter by adding milk. If the paniyaram goes into pieces in oil or soggy then batter is too watery then you can add little rice flour but the texture of paniyaram will become little rough.
4. The oil temperature plays important roll in getting paniyaram flower patteren. If the paniyaram sticks to bottom of pan then oil is not hot enought. If paniyaram turns to be browned then oil is too hot.
Always heat oil to highest, after pouring batter into oil reduce heat to lowest so the paniyaram gets cooked well and also has white color.

Authentic Vellai Paniyaram