Best Occasion to Prepare this Recipe
Is it a cold day outside? Craving a quick late afternoon snack to spice up your evening taste buds?
Fortunately, the south Indian “tiffen” cuisine has experimented enough to accommodate all moods, different palates, and also availability (or not) of ingredients in your kitchen!
Got leftover idli /dosa batter at home? I DID! Also, I was looking to use up leftover carrots, beans, and cabbage in my fridge – quickly made myself this delicious “can-have-it-as-any-meal” dish. Yes- while growing up mom prepped this for breakfast. There were also times when mom prepared the batter just to make dinner time Paniyarams!
CAUTION: This dish is lip-smacking delicious and you’re more likely than not to overconsume the numbers.
My Top Three Recipe Recommendations
- Raks Kitchen’s Masala Kuzhi Paniyaram
- Pickometer Score 4.25/5.0 for taste, innovation and presentation
- Chitra’s Food Book Paniyaaram
- Pickometer Score 3.75/5.0 for retaining traditional recipe with a touch of innovation
- Indian Healthy Recipes Kuzhi Paniyaram
- Pickometer Score 3.50/5.0 for cooking the classic recipe by the book
My Improv & Notes
I improvised over the best masala Paniyaaram recipe out there, i.e, Raks. Here are my improvs over the recipe
- I prefer to use old idli batter to absorb the naturally sour taste. Give it three days or more on fresh idli batter before you try this recipe
- If you prefer some nutrition boost together with taste, add in some Cabbage, Beans, Carrots, Capsicum, finely chopped Coriander leaves together with onions when preparing the Paniyaram Masala
- Try adding Spinach (few leaves) OR Methi to the above mixture and let me know if you like it!
- I used Channa Dal in place of Urad Dal for tempering
- If you like to bump up the flavor, add in some coriander powder together with turmeric and red chilli powder in the mix
- Use Ghee in place of oil to greese up the kuzhi-paniyaaram pan