Sweet Maida Appam for Karthikai Deepam

Karthikai Deepam is a festival of lights celebrated in the month of Karthikai(Tamil calendar month which usually falls in November/December) on the full moon day. Celebrated mainly in South India especially, state of Tamilnadu.

Every home is lit with rows of oil-lit mud lamps(Agal Vilakku). For more information, check out here.

We usually clean our house and in the evening, draw rangoli/kolam in front of our houses, decorate it with colour powder or flowers and lit lamps. Special offerings will be prepared for God and worship is done. So this time I made Sweet maida appam and it came out well.

These lamps were lit in our pooja(worship) room. Need to make sure, Thatchu wont hurt her hands, so lit lamps only where she cannot access;)

This dish needs a paniyaram pan for preparing, check the picture here.


Now to the recipe....

Ingredients:
All purpose flour/Maida - 1 cup
Semolina (Rawa/Sooji) - 1/4 cup
Jaggery (Vellam) - 1 cup, powdered
Cardamom powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Cashews - 10-12
Raisins - 10-12
Ghee - 2-3 tablespoons
Oil - 1-2 tablespoon, for brushing
Baking powder - 1/4 teaspoon (optional)

Method:
Dissolve powdered jaggery in 1/2 cup of warm water. Filter it to remove the impurities.

Add flour and semolina and make it a thick batter. Add little water if required.

Roast cashews and raisins in ghee and add to it.

Add cardamom powder and mix it well.

Baking powder can be added along with flour or if you don't want to use it, leave the batter aside for 2-3 hours before preparing.

Heat paniyaram pan and brush oil. Add batter to the moulds and fry both sides, until they are dark brown.

Simple dish to make. Serve hot.


Cooking time: 20 minutes
Makes 15-20 appams