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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Guntha Ponganalu


Guntha Ponganalu served with Dalia Chutney

The name says it all. Guntha = the deep impressions in the skillet and ponganalu = puffed ones.

If you have encountered guntha ponganalu earlier, you already know that it is hard to escape from their enchantment. These soft, plump, fluffed beauties are cooked in ponganalu penam - the special skillet with the moulds. Though they are popular as a breakfast item at homes, they are also sold as a street snack during evenings in Rayalaseema region and are usually served with erra karam.
My mother always prepares fresh ponganalu batter instead of using left over rice / idli batters to prepare them. I follow the same method and the recipe for our favorite breakfast is given below.
M's family got to know about these homemade plumpies through my mother and me and they instantly fell in love with them.

For 9 -10 generous servings, ingredients needed are:
3 cups rice (long grain will do)
1/2 cup uraddal
2 tbsp poha
1 & 1/2 cups yogurt to grind the batter (or as needed)
2 tsp salt
A handful of chanadal (soaked in water for a couple of hours or overnight and drained)
2 onions, finely minced
Oil

Preparing batter:
Wash and soak the rice, uraddal and poha for a minimum of 3 hours. The longer you soak, quicker & easier the grinding would be. Throw away the water used to soak.
Grind the ingredients with as little yogurt as possible into a thick, smooth batter. Add the salt and mix well. If the batter is runny, chances of making fluffy ponganalu are almost ruined.
Keep the batter to ferment overnight in a warm place. During winter, keeping the batter in a warm / lighted oven would help. Also remember, the fermented ponganalu batter would not double as idli / dosa batters.

Preparing ponganalu:
In the morning, when ponganalu needs to be prepared, add the chanadal and minced onion to the ground batter and mix well.
Heat the ponganalu skillet and add a few drops of oil in each mould. Then fill them with batter.



Cover the ponganalu skillet with a lid. Turn down the heat and cook for about 5 minutes or till the ponganalu batter doesn't appear raw.



Then flip them, add a drop or two of oil and cook till the other side lightly browns as well.



Serve with chutney or with errakaram for a Rayalaseema touch.

They are going to be a part of -
Shabitha's Celebrating Mom
Jyoti's Mother's day event.
Divya's 'Show me your whole grains'.

Post a comment

18 comments:

Unknown said...

the pics are so tempting Suma, lovely dish, I have to now buy this appam maker as I see you guys posting so many lovely dishes using this.

Nithu Bala said...

Wow! very fluffy and yummy..my favourite too..beautiful pictures..

Kiran said...

Very delicious looking ponganalu.
I am sure that drummsticks are used in majjigapulusu.

harini-jaya said...

cool pics..my kids luv these so a frequent preparation on our end !!

PranisKitchen said...

delicious guntha ponganalu..nice pic too
is this same as paniyaram..
in kerala we have a similar dish called unniappam(small rice cake).if u get a chance visit
http://pranithworld.blogspot.com/2010/03/unniappam-small-ricecake.html

Shabitha Karthikeyan said...

wow..Looks yummy Suma..awesome pic too..

Unknown said...

Pics are way too tempting Suma, looks delicious..

Priya Srinivasan - I Camp in My Kitchen said...

yummy suma!!!, we call it Kuzhi Paniyaram.

Aruna Manikandan said...

Looks perfect and crispy dear :-)

Chitra said...

Iam drooling, its my favvvvvvvvvvv...

chef and her kitchen said...

love them anytime....looks yummy

Priya Suresh said...

Cute kuzhi paniyaram looks awesome..feel like grabbing!!

Savi-Ruchi said...

beautiful picture.

Life is beautiful !!! said...

Suma they look awesome...I have one non-stick ponganalu pan and I could never take my ponganalu out whenever I prepare :(

suma said...

delightful guntha pongalu and chutney, makes a wonderful meal anytime..

Unknown said...

What a lovely picture!! Never heard of Guntha ponganulu..It looks really tasty..

AJ said...

Looks yummy!! I make this for snacking!!

Anonymous said...

Wow, great tempting picture and how well explained. Thanks! It will be a great snack for kids when they return home from college