Easy Instant Unniyappam / Banana Kuzhi Paniyaram / Rice Flour Sweet Appam

All fond memories are made through food. Or at least the food enthusiast in me try to connect memories with food. There is a memory associated with these unniyappams. I first tasted unniyappam in one of dad's friends' home when I was around 10. They are a sweet family from Kerala and Aunty would make this every single time when we visited. I still remember how fondly she used to prepare these appams for us kids. Then they moved back to Kerala after Uncle retired and we all moved to different cities for work. But then the world has shrunk these days due to the advent of social media and we have got a chance to reconnect with our old friends. It is through Facebook that we reconnected with their family. I chanced upon to see her daughter, wishing her mother on her birthday. I too conveyed my wishes to Aunty and the foodie in me made a mental note that I have to make her unniyappams one day.

Ingredients:
Serves - 4 for snack
Rice flour - 2 cups
Jaggery - 1/2 cup (tightly packed) - see notes below
Banana - 3 small or 2 big ones - mashed
Salt - a pinch
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Baking soda - a big pinch
Water - 1/4 cup + more to make the batter
Oil - for frying in the pan

Method:
Mix jaggery in 1/4 cup of water and heat until it is melted. Filter with a fine mesh strainer. Mix the jaggery syrup with rice flour, mashed bananas and water to make a batter of pouring consistency but slightly thicker than dosa batter. Stir in salt, cardamom powder and baking soda. Heat the paniyaram pan / abelskiever pan in medium-high flame. Pour about 1/4 tsp of oil in each kuzhi (indentation). Pour enough batter into each kuzhi to fill. When little bubbles start to appear on the top, flip using a toothpick or chopstick to about halfway. After about another minute, flip again completely. At this stage all the sides of the appam should be golden and well-formed to a round shape. Reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook until the insides are cooked through. Repeat for the rest of the batter.
Notes:
1. The amount of jaggery used here yields a mildly sweetened unniyappam. For sweeter ones use 3/4 to 1 cup of jaggery. The water for making syrup should be 1:2 with jaggery.
2. Traditionally the unniyappam is made by soaking rice and grinding to form a batter with jaggery and banana. Another point to make it traditional is to add small pieces of fresh coconut fried in ghee and black sesame seeds to the batter.