Tamil style Recipe for Crispy Chettinad Kuzhi Paniyaram. Using home made batter from scratch. With step by step pictures.
The nice crispy crunchy Kuzhi Paniyaram is a very popular dish in Tamilnadu. Its a favorite for many. Its made in a special mold called the paniyarakkal. The shape of the dish is very similar to that of the Japanese Takoyaki, Danish Æbleskiver-appleskives and Indonesian Pinyaram. The Paniyaram can be made sweet or savoury. This is a savoury version where a tempering is added to the idli/dosa batter. I like to use idli batter for this recipe and you can find the recipe for idli batter here.
Here is how to do Kuzhi Paniyaram. Soak Sago (“Tapioca Sago – Sabudana” is called ஜவ்வரிசி (javvarisi) in Tamil) in 1/2 cup of water for half an hour. Grind to a paste. Dont add any extra water while grinding. The water used for soaking should be enough. Set aside. Sago gives the Kuzhi Paniyaram a very crispy and crunchy bite.
Heat a heavy bottomed pan and add in the oil. When the oil is hot, add in the mustard seeds. Let it splutter. Add in the shallots and the green chillies. Its very traditional to use shallots for Kuzhi Paniyaram. But I have used onions today as I did not have shallots.
Fry the onions till they are soft. Once the onions are soft, add in the coconut. Fry for a minute. Remove off heat. Add in the onion coconut mixture and the sago paste to the dosa batter. I do not add extra salt as the idli batter already has salt. If you think you might need salt, add very little salt to the batter. Mix batter well. Set aside.
Heat the paniyaram pan / paniyarakkal until hot. Add 3/4 teaspoon of vegetable oil into each mold. Drop the batter to fill the mold. Cook for a minute. Then turn and cook on the other side. Turn again if necessary to make sure the paniyaram is evenly cooked on both sides and its nicely golden in colour.
The paniyaram is ready if it has become crispy and golden on both sides.
I like to serve Kuzhi paniyaram with a spicy kaara chutney or poondu kuzhambu. Here is the link to buy a sturdy Paniyaram pan / Paniyarakkal
- 500 ml Idli Batter
- 3 tablespoon Sago/Sabudana/Javvarisi
- ½ teaspoon Salt (if required only)
- 2 teaspoon vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- 20 shallots or one big onion, chopped fine
- 4 green chillies, chopped fine
- ¾ cup fresh shredded coconut (half of one medium sized coconut)
- ½ cup Vegetable Oil
- Soak Sago in ½ cup of water for half an hour. Grind to a paste. Set aside.
- Heat a heavy bottomed pan and add in the oil. When the oil is hot, add in the mustard seeds. Let it splutter. Add in the shallots and the green chillies. Fry the onions till they are soft.
- Once the onions are soft, add in the coconut. Fry for a minute. Remove off heat. Add in the onion coconut mixture and the sago paste to the idli/dosa batter. Add salt if required.
- Heat the paniyaram pan / paniyarakkal until hot. Add ¾ teaspoon of vegetable oil into each mold. Drop the batter to fill the mold. Cook for a minute. Then turn and cook on the other side. Turn again if necessary to make sure the paniyaram is evenly cooked on both sides and its nicely golden in colour.
- The paniyaram is ready if it has become crispy and golden on both sides.
Hi
Can we soak sago more than half n hour,as it is not grinding to a smooth paste?
There is this problem in some mixie where the sago doesnt get ground (the round shape of sago somehow does not grind at all). In this case the best thing would be to grind the sago without soaking into a powder. Its easy to powder the sago in its dry form in these cases. Then add the dry powder to the batter and proceed with the recipe.
Yummy recipe. Love the fact that we can use idli batter with just adding sogu, which helps to hack boring 3days old idli batter to a interesting yummy panniyaram.
Incredibly easy, delectable paniyaram…we just loved it! Thanks Suguna for the recipe
Yummy.. Very tasty…Tnk u..
Thanks so much. Really glad that you liked the recipe. Happy Cooking.
Would like share a different recipe which I learnt from my mother in law. Soak equal quantities of raw rice and boiled rice and half a cup of urad dal and 2 teaspoons of methi seeds.and 2/3 red chillies. After about 4 hours of soaking grind to a smooth batter. While grinding add 2 teaspoons of jeera seeds and a handful of washed fresh curry leaves. Towards end add sambhar onions and salt and let ferment for about 8 hours. Then fry them in the Kuzhi pan with gingerly oil to a golden brown. Serve with coconut chutney. You can use this batter next day to make dosas too .
thanks for sharing Vijaya Kanth. So nice to know.
Yummy Paniyarams. I never tried adding coconut in the paniyarams. will try it soon.
Can we use til oil instead of veg oil?
Sure. You can.
Hello,
We are a franco-tamil cultural centre in Pondicherry and we are currently writting an article about what can be done out of an idli batter especially dosai, uttapam and kuzhi paniyaram ! We would like to ask you if we can use this article”s first picture to illustrate it ? We can put the photographer”s name on it of course and send you the link of the article once it is written !
Sita team”s best regards
Sure. I am ok as long as photography credits are given.
Hello Suguna,
Could you please post the recipe for Sweet Kuzhi panniyaram?
Thank you,
Sudha
Hi Kannama,
I used to prepare paniyaram with the specially made batter for that. For eg 1 cup parboiled rice, 1 cup raw rice, less than half cup of ur ad dal. Used to soak together and grind. This I learnt from my chettinad friend. Before and all I used to make wonderful paniyaram with this batter. But nowadays I don’t know what’s wrong but the paniyaram get sticking with the pan. In fact all these 7 yrs I have been using indolium paniyaram pan only. Could u frame out any improvement or suggestions. If possible reply earlier since I have a plan for making it for my guests after two days. Sorry for the pressure put on u.
You might need to season your pan!
You can check this out
http://www.kannammacooks.com/how-to-season-your-iron-dosa-pan/
Same procedure will work for paniyaram pans too!
Oh takes for such an earlier reply year. So kind of u. Takes a ton.
Does it need to be covered ???
No Nisha. It need not be covered.
Hi Sugs..Tried chettinad kuzhi paniyaaraam today….it came out very well…thanks for the recipe…
Thank you Anandhi.
Good I like it