CHOLA PANIYARAM

Its millets everywhere now. The awareness of their health benefits have brought a thought of including them in our daily meal. Millets which was often being called as "poor mans meal" has now become more of a mandatory ingredients in most of our kitchen. Irrespective of their health benifits i was reluctant to cook with millets wondering will they be tasty enough. Few of us in home including me, are quite picky when it comes to food. Finally, decided why not give it a try. So, started adding them to my regular diet and so far no complaints. Most of the dishes came out good.

Today's recipe, chola paniyaram which I got from my Chithi ( my moms younger sister) came out quite tasty and crispy as well. I generally avoid paniyarams as they consume more oil. Now with nonstick paniyaram pan and my millet batter I almost ate 2 servings.. Cheers to healthy and definitely tasty cooking.

This millet, commonly known as cholam in tamil), jowar (in hindi) or sorghum (in english) is of pepper size and is white in colour.  It is far more nutritious than rice or wheat. In other words its a power house which is packed with nutrients. One important thing that you should always remember before using any millet is that they are tiny grains and sometimes you find stones mixed. So, wash them well at least 4-5 times before use.



INGREDIENTS:

FOR BATTER:

1. White cholam - 1 cup
2. Rice - 1 cup
3. Urad dal - 1/2 cup
4. Fenugreek seeds - 2 tbsp
5. Salt - to taste.

TO TEMPER:

1. Oil - 1 tbsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
3. Urad dal - 1 tsp
4. Channa dal - 1 tsp
5. Curry leaves - a hand full (chopped)
6. Asafoetida - a pinch
7. Ginger - 1 tsp (chopped)
8. Onions - 2 (chopped)
9. Salt - to taste

METHOD:

BATTER:

1. Wash cholam and rice and soak them in enough water separately.
2. Soak urad dal along with fenugreek seeds in enough water. Let all 3 soak for atleast 2 hours.
3. Give them all a final rinse after the soaking time and grind them separately in a mixer/grinder.
4. Once done add salt and mix the batter well.
5. Let it ferment overnight and your batter will be ready for the next day morning.

PANIYARAM:

1. Heat oil in a kadai and add the ingredients given in "To temper" one by one. (After onions you can also add carrot and saute for a minute).
2. Also be cautious while adding salt as your batter already has salt in it.
3. Add the tempering to the batter. You can add some coriander leaves now. Mix them all well and your batter is ready now.
4. Heat the paniyaram pan and brush each well with little oil.
5. Pour the batter up to 3/4 of each well. Let it cook for a minute.
6. Now turn them upside down. You can drizzle some oil if you want. Let it cook for another one minute.Insert a kinfe in a paniyaram and take it out. If it comes clean without any batter sticking to it. Then your paniyarams are perfectly cooked.                                               

Serve hot with ant chutney of your choice. Peanut chutney is my choice. They both go so well.