Celebrating 400th Post With Yeriyappa

Yeriyappa is a deep fried, jaggery based dessert. This is my 400th post and hence I wanted it to be really special. I started digging into the good old cook book written by Jaya V Shenoy to find a traditional sweet. Finally decided to make this. I also discussed about this sweet with my mother as she was familiar with it. She told me her mom's recipe. Finally I tried it and it tasted awesome. This is the first time I made yeriyappa and probably the first time I am tasting it. I was wondering as to why my mother never made this for us.

Yeriyappa is a deep fried version of the sweet paniyarams (Appo) and I totally enjoyed it. It is little time consuming but worth all the effort. Do try making it for festive occasions and I am sure everyone will enjoy it!

Ingredients:

• Rice - 1 cup
• Toordal (Split Pigeon pea)- 1/4 cup
• Rice flakes (Poha) - 1/2 cup
• Grated Coconut, fresh/frozen - 1/2 cup
• Jaggery - 3/4 cup to 1 cup
• Cardamom pods - 4
• Salt- A pinch
• Ghee (clarified butter)/Oil*-For deep frying

*I used a mixture of oil and ghee to cut down the fat. In this way I did't miss the wonderful flavor induced by ghee.

Procedure:

Wash rice and toordal. Soak them together in water for one hour.

Then add few tablespoon of water to rice flakes just enough to soften it. Then add this softened rice flakes, crushed jaggery, cardamom pods, grated coconut, salt in a blender. Drain the water from the rice-lentil mixture. 

Add the drained rice-lentil mixture with the rest of the ingredients and blend it to get a smooth paste. The final mixture should be thick (pouring consistency and not dropping consistency. I just added a tablespoon of water while grinding. Add water only if required. If the batter is not thick then it might not hold its shape while deep frying). Transfer the batter to a bowl.

Now heat the oil or ghee or a mixture of both. Once moderately hot (not very hot) pour little amount of batter so that it forms a round shape (make only one at a time). Once it is cooked on one side flip it on the other side using tongs. Let it cook until the edges gets crispy and golden brown.

Once it looks done, take it on a slotted spoon and remove the excessive ghee by pressing it using another spatula or spoon (this step has to be done over the pan containing hot ghee. So you have to be extremely careful).

Then transfer it on a paper towel. Continue with the rest of the batter. 
Yeriyappa is ready!!

Once it cools down, transfer them to an air tight container.