Kuzhi Paniyaram / Kuzhi Appam From Left Over Idli Batter

For the 3rd and last day of blogging under the theme car snacks, I chose a traditional South Indian dish, Kuzhi Paniyaram that is often had as breakfast or evening tiffin. Our evening tiffins on most days are in the car. This is an apt dish to make for the evening run because of its simplicity to make and eat. All we need is some left over dosai or idli batter. I have added onions and carrots in the recipe to make it a little flavorful, colorful and healthy. If in a hurry, all the recipe need is some tempering.

Kuzhi Paniyaram is made in an appam pan. As soon as I take my pan out, the first question my oldest one asks is – Amma, are you making sweet appam. He just absolutely loves it and awaits certain festivals just to eat that. Those are times I remind myself, do not wait for the festivals to make them. Hence, time permitting; I also make a small batch of vellam appam (sweet appam) along with this.

On many days when I do not have enough dosai batter to feed the entire family, I make the kuzhipaniyaram and finish the meal off with some Thayir saadham (Curd rice). My kids love the crispy exterior and the soft interior and finish it off happily with some hot sauce or ketchup.

Day 1 of Car snacks – Anzac Biscuits
Day 2 of Car snacks – Whole wheat banana pineapple muffins

Preparation time – 10 minutes
Cooking time – about 25 minutes
Difficulty level – easy

Ingredients to make Kuzhi Paniyaram – Makes about 25-28 appam

Idli / Dosai batter – 2 cups
Onion – ½ cup (finely chopped)
Carrots – ¼ cup (finely grated)
Oil – 2 tsp plus more to grease the appam pan
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Ullutham paruppu / Urad dal – 1 tsp
Kadalai paruppu / Channa dal – 2 tsp
Green chilies – 3 (finely chopped)
Curry leaves – few
Cilantro – few (finely chopped)
Asafetida – a pinch
Salt – to taste

Procedure to make Kuzhi Paniyaram –

If the idli/dosai batter is in the refrigerator, take it out at least an hour before. Adjust the batter to bring it to a thick, pouring consistency.
In a small pan, heat 2 tsp of oil. Add the mustard seeds and once they splutter, add the urad dal, channa dal and asafetida. Fry it for few seconds, until the dals are golden brown.
Now add the onions, green chilies and curry leaves and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Next add the grated carrots and fry for 2 more minutes. You don’t want to cook them until very soft. The vegetables should still retain their crunchiness.
Add salt needed just for the seasonings. The batter already has salt in it, so be careful when adding salt.
Add this mixture to the batter and mix well. Also add the cilantro and mix well.

Heat the appam pan on medium heat. Add 2 or 3 drops of oil in each of the hole.
Pour the batter into the appam holes until they are almost full. Cover the pan with lid and let it cook for about 2 minutes. Cook the appam on low to medium heat. If the heat is too high, the outside will become dark quickly and the inside would not be cooked.
Once the appam cooks on one side, use the wooden tool that came with the pan to rotate the appam and turn it over. Let it cook on the other side until golden brown.