Tomato Kuzhipaniyaram

I love kuzhipaniyarams (aka pancake puffs), a true Chettinad delicacy which is great as breakfast but can be enjoyed any time of the day. Who will not? -  As you can see many of the restaurants and fast food joints have this on their menu now a days. They small bite size delights are yummy and easy to make. These are generally made with rice but sometimes made with semolina or maida (all purpose flour) - sweet or savory version. If you are a little busy (or on lazy days), you can make this with leftover idli or dosa batter. Adding vegetables also increases the flavor and nutritional value of these tiny spherical delicious gems. 

I chose to make the tomato version of this kuzhipaniyarams today because:

• I love tomatoes.
• Tomatoes add a great color and flavor to any dish. 
• Simple addition but a huge difference in the flavor.
• Adds to the variety of the recipe.

I always make batter with the proportions that follows.

Ingredients:

Regular or sona masoori rice: 1 cup

Idli rice - 1 cup

Whole urad - 1 handful

Fenugreek - 1 tsp

Red chilli - 1

Tomatoes - 11/4 cup, chopped

Cilantro - 2 tsp chopped

Oil

Mustard seed - 1/2 tsp

Cumin - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Method:

Soak rice, urad dhal, fenureek for 4 hours and grind to a smooth batter. Add salt and ferment overnight. Just before you make the paniyarams, grind the tomatoes with a little salt and red chilli and add it to the batter. Season with mustard, cumin and curryleaves and add the chopped cilantro. Mix thoroughly.

Heat the kuzhipaniyaram pan (I prefer nonstick ones as they consume less oil), ladle spoonful of batter into the pan.

Drizzle a little oil. Once you see a lot of holes on the paniyaram, its time to flip them and cook the other side.

Look at the color, isn't  these truly awesome!

After a couple of minutes, delicious and tasty kuzhipaniyarams are ready. Since it is tomato kuzhipaniyaram, it is best eaten with coconut chutney for breakfast.