Paniyaram – Crisp Savory Breakfast Dumplings
Weekends, for my son are perfect with a combination of chicken and dosas. Not necessarily together. However somewhere in the grand scheme of things for a weekend. I am often leftover with small amounts of the batter for the week. And today, I decided to use some to make to make these savory dumpling like treats called paniyaram.
A great way to use up leftover dosa batter. These crisp little bites are also called appe. They are savory pancakes of sorts. To get this shape you will need an appe or abelskiver pan.
The rest really is a few basic ingredients and you have a whole meal for yourself and kid and caboodle.
The Story of Paniyaran
It will be difficult to capture the spirit of tranquility that prevailed in our house. In rhythm with the cool and rainy weather. The spirit of the air reflecting the mood of a Sherlock Holmes mystery. Well, all of the mood and spirit screamed for a snack and this is where that leftover batter came in handy. Bonus fun is to engage my kids in an exercise to say the name correctly. This is always a fun exercise. They enjoy tongue twisters, it makes the dish more interesting for them. This joy transcends boundaries. Even complex country names are fun for them.
A time for Everything
My dad loved saying, there is a time for everything. I guess today it was time for Paniyarams in our household. I have an inherited but rather beaten up Paniyaram chatti, This skillet is very similar if not identical to an abelskiver pan. My paniyaran pan has all the trappings of a well used family classic. I am not even sure how it got this way, because ironically enough I am the only member on my family who has attempted to use this. In fact, I am also the only one who makes dosa and idlies. Without which there are no paniyarams. Another potential good dinner/breakfast/anytime dish for the rotation. Once I get with the program of fermenting dosa batter in winter.
By way of heritage, this falls in the tiffin category of South Indian cooking. A lot of simple and practical dishes. You will find several of these recipes lurking around my site. A lot of the tiffin dishes center around the essential dosa batter. These paniyarams are no different. They are a way to use up the batter on hand. They are always made up with leftover batter. These small little crisp pillars of goodness are crisp on the outside and soft and spongy inside. All married happily with the tang of sourdough dosa batter. So, while the possibilities are endless you will need to have dosa batter on hand.
They are usually happily served up with chutney, and in my case I served them with the apple and cranberry relish that I made up in minutes.
This is the time for nesting, fun and frolic, I encourage you to plan a little and try your hand at these savory treats.
A crisp savory breakfast dumpling called paniyaran, made with leftover dosa batter.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon oil plus additional oil for crisping and greasing the Paniyaram pan
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 10 curry leaves
- 1 cup leftover dosa batter
- 1 medium sized red onion finely chopped
- Finely chopped green chilies
- Chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Heat the teaspoon of oil in a small pan and add in the mustard seeds. Once the seeds crackle add in the curry leaves.
- Place the dosa batter in a bowl. Add in the seasoned oil.
- Mix in the chopped onion, green chilies and cilantro. You will want to add enough to have nice flavor, but not overwhelm the batter with its presence.
- Place the appe/paniyaram pan on the fire. Add a few drops of oil in each well.
- Pour enough of the batter into the wells to fill the wells about 3/4 of the and let them cook and turn crisp. This takes about 3 minutes and the top is not runny anymore.
- By the time they are ready to be turned they are fairly crisp and can be turned easily, I find it convenient to use a a small skewer to turn the paniyarams.
- Turn them over and press lightly down to cook the second side.
- Remove and continue this process until all the batter is used up and serve hot with your favorite condiment.
Laviza
Looks great. Do you have an easy recipe for dosa better ?
rinkub@aol.com
Yes, in the archives.
Easy Instant Pot Tomato Sambhar - Spice Chronicles
[…] you to a really great and nuanced pot of goodness that works well with rice, dosas, idlies, and paniyarams. And if you make a double batch it freezes really well. This is naturally glutenfree and can be […]