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Recipe · Festival food · Tamil Nadu

Nei Appam for Karthigai Deepam: Soft Inside, Crisp Outside

Rice, jaggery and ripe banana, fried in ghee in a paniyaram pan. The sweet every Tamil home makes for Karthigai Deepam.

Our kitchenUpdated
Prep20 min
Soaking3 h
Cook30 min
Makes20 appams
Jump to recipe
Golden nei appam on a plate beside a lit brass lamp
In this recipe3 parts
  1. Ingredients and steps
  2. Why nei appam for Karthigai?
  3. Questions people ask

Quick answer

Soak 1 cup raw rice for 2 hours, grind it with jaggery syrup and a ripe banana into a thick batter, rest it for an hour, then fry spoonfuls in ghee in a paniyaram pan on a medium-low flame, turning once.

Ingredients and steps

20 appams

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Ingredients

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You need

Paniyaram (appam) panMixer grinderSmall skewer or spoon to turn

Steps

  1. Soak the rice

    Wash the rice and soak it in water for 2 hours.

  2. Melt the jaggery

    Heat the jaggery with the water until it melts. Strain out any grit and let it cool a little.

  3. Grind

    Drain the rice. Grind it with the jaggery syrup and the banana into a thick, slightly grainy batter, like idli batter. Add water only if the mixer struggles.

  4. Flavour and rest

    Fry the coconut bits in a spoon of ghee until golden and stir them into the batter with the cardamom and salt. Rest the batter for an hour.

  5. Fry

    Heat the paniyaram pan on a medium-low flame with a teaspoon of ghee in each hole. Fill each hole three-quarters, cook until the base is golden, about 3 minutes, then turn and cook the other side for 2 minutes.

Shop tip: Keep the flame medium-low: on a high flame the outside browns before the inside cooks. If the appams spread flat, the batter is too thin; add a spoon of rice flour.

100kcal
1.5 gprotein
17 gcarbs
3 gfat

Per appam, an estimate. It does not change with the servings.

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Why nei appam for Karthigai?

Nei appam (ghee appam) is one of the sweets offered on Karthigai Deepam along with pori urundai. It is quick to make in a paniyaram pan, and the whole house smells of ghee and cardamom while the lamps are being lit.

Plan the evening

Soak the rice after lunch, grind by 4 PM, and fry the appams just before you light the lamps so they are warm for the pooja.

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Questions people ask

Why are my appams hard?
The batter was too thick or rested too long, or they were fried on high heat. Add a little water and fry on a medium-low flame.
Can I make nei appam without a banana?
Yes, but the banana makes them softer. Add 2 tablespoons of curd or a pinch of baking soda instead.
Can I use rice flour instead of soaking rice?
Yes. Mix 1 cup rice flour with the jaggery syrup and mashed banana into a thick batter and rest it for 30 minutes.