NEYPATHAL: Deep Fried Rice Pancake With Onion,Fennel &Coconut
Ingredients:2 cups long grain rice (Pachari)1 cup water
1 1/2 cup freshly grated coconut
1 large onion (200g)
1 cup rice powder (Unroasted)
2 tspful fennel (perumjeerakam)
1 1/4 tsp salt
Preparation:
1. Soak the rice in normal tap water for 3-4 hours.
2. Grind it along with minimal water until you get a coarse and grainy mixture. When you touch the ground rice, it should be really grainy.(I have used more water here since my grinder doesn't work with less amount than that).
3. Add coconut, fennel seeds and roughly chopped onions to this and grind for few seconds until everything is just crushed and NOT smooth.
4. Tip the whole mixture in to a large bowl, add salt and mix well.
5. Add the rice powder and mix well using hands.
6. Place a large kadai on high heat. Take a golf size ball and flatten it into thick discs of 4-5 mm width (combined width of 2-3 pooris) using the fingers by placing it on a plastic sheet. (I use a shopper bag cut into square shape). Carefully hold the plastic sheet in one hand and remove the pathal using other hand and slowly slide it in oil.
7. One you put the neypathal in oil you can see bubbles and after sometimes it will float on top and puff up. As soon as it puffs up, using a slotted spoon, flip it over and fry both sides until golden.
method 2
Ingredients:2 cups Parboiled rice (Puzhukkalari)
1 1/2 - 2 cups freshly grated coconut
1 large onion (200g)
2 cups water
1 cup minus 2 tbsful rice powder (Unroasted)
1 1/2 tbs tspful fennel (perumjeerakam)
1 1/4 tsp salt
Preparation:1. Soak the rice in tap water overnight.
2. Grind it along with minimal water until you get a coarse and grainy mixture.
3. Add coconut, fennel seeds and roughly chopped onion to this and grind for few seconds until everything is just crushed and NOT smooth.
4. Tip the whole mixture in to a large bowl, add salt and mix well.
5. Add the rice powder and mix well using hands.
6. Place a large kadai on high heat. Take a golf size ball and flatten it into thick discs of 4-5 mm width (combined width of 2-3 pooris) using the fingers by placing it on a plastic sheet. (I use a shopper bag cut into square shape). Carefully hold the plastic sheet in one hand and remove the pathal using other hand and slowly slide it in oil.
7. One you put the neypathal in oil you can see bubbles and after sometimes it will float on top and puff up. As soon as it puffs up, using a slotted spoon, flip it over and fry both sides until golden.
method 3 (using puttupodi)
1. Boil water and add salt.
2. Crush coconut with fennel and onion. Keep it aside.
3. Add the puttupodi to the boiled water and mix. Add the ground mixture and mix well.
4. The mixture should just be firm enough to make a ball out of it and flatten it and drop it in the oil.
Important points to be Noted:1. If using parboiled rice, the texture differ mainly because of rice. I had to change the rice few times because my neypathal wouldn't come out good. Either it would never get cooked, or it would be too hard. My mom uses sona rice for making this. If you are in the UK, you can get the rice that comes in a blue packet at tesco. It is mentioned in the packet as 'Easy cook long grain rice'. But that works very well for this one.
2. If you are new to this dish, I would recommend you to try with Long grain rice (Pachari), just because,pachari is widely available and it cant go wrong as parboiled rice.
3. If you don't have rice powder, you can lay several layers of towels or thick cloth and pour the batter in this stacked towel until it absorb all the moisture from the ground mixture and you get a soft rice dough that you can form into a ball. My mom makes it this way. She grinds her rice in the large electric mortar (Ammiyum kuttiyum) by adding very minimal water, just few tablespoons of water. Since I don't have have that mortar, I add lot of water for my grinder to work. And have to substitute that moisture by adding rice powder. So use minimal water as possible.
4. If the mixture is too dry, it will be easy to flatten it, but it will start cracking in the oil, and it will be dry. SO make sure,just make the the dough firm enough so that you can make a soft ball and fry it in oil. It might take some time to get the hang of it, but once you are used to it, it will be easy. I remember when I first started making this dish, I was so scared when I start to drop the pathal in oil and I drop it from a distance, I think i should say throwing it from a distance, spilling the oil everywhere and smearing the whole surrounding area with oil. Sometimes oil splashed on me as well. So the best thing is to drop slowly into the oil. Just slide in slowly and it works perfect.
5. If the pathal is too thick or too thin, it might not puff up all the time. So adjust accordingly.
6. And most of all, the oil should be really really hot. After frying few neypathal, the oil temperature drops down drastically. So wait for sometime, until the oil is smoking hot and then continue frying them again.
Best reheating method:The best way to reheat the neypathal would be steaming them until soft. By this way, they really become soft. I also microwave sometimes, but as usual with the Micro-heated stuffs, if not eaten immediately, they go hard.
2. Crush coconut with fennel and onion. Keep it aside.
3. Add the puttupodi to the boiled water and mix. Add the ground mixture and mix well.
4. The mixture should just be firm enough to make a ball out of it and flatten it and drop it in the oil.
Important points to be Noted:1. If using parboiled rice, the texture differ mainly because of rice. I had to change the rice few times because my neypathal wouldn't come out good. Either it would never get cooked, or it would be too hard. My mom uses sona rice for making this. If you are in the UK, you can get the rice that comes in a blue packet at tesco. It is mentioned in the packet as 'Easy cook long grain rice'. But that works very well for this one.
2. If you are new to this dish, I would recommend you to try with Long grain rice (Pachari), just because,pachari is widely available and it cant go wrong as parboiled rice.
3. If you don't have rice powder, you can lay several layers of towels or thick cloth and pour the batter in this stacked towel until it absorb all the moisture from the ground mixture and you get a soft rice dough that you can form into a ball. My mom makes it this way. She grinds her rice in the large electric mortar (Ammiyum kuttiyum) by adding very minimal water, just few tablespoons of water. Since I don't have have that mortar, I add lot of water for my grinder to work. And have to substitute that moisture by adding rice powder. So use minimal water as possible.
4. If the mixture is too dry, it will be easy to flatten it, but it will start cracking in the oil, and it will be dry. SO make sure,just make the the dough firm enough so that you can make a soft ball and fry it in oil. It might take some time to get the hang of it, but once you are used to it, it will be easy. I remember when I first started making this dish, I was so scared when I start to drop the pathal in oil and I drop it from a distance, I think i should say throwing it from a distance, spilling the oil everywhere and smearing the whole surrounding area with oil. Sometimes oil splashed on me as well. So the best thing is to drop slowly into the oil. Just slide in slowly and it works perfect.
5. If the pathal is too thick or too thin, it might not puff up all the time. So adjust accordingly.
6. And most of all, the oil should be really really hot. After frying few neypathal, the oil temperature drops down drastically. So wait for sometime, until the oil is smoking hot and then continue frying them again.
Best reheating method:The best way to reheat the neypathal would be steaming them until soft. By this way, they really become soft. I also microwave sometimes, but as usual with the Micro-heated stuffs, if not eaten immediately, they go hard.
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