Sweet Paniyaram/ Jaggery Paniyaram

Happy New Year to all my friends! Hope everyone has a very prosperous and healthy year ahead!

Let us start the new year on a sweet note.. I made these sweet and delicious sweet paniyarams one evening and we enjoyed them as an evening snack. They are healthy since they are made with very little oil/ghee and contain jaggery instead of sugar. Jaggery is unrefined, wholesome sugar which has the goodness of minerals and vitamins.

Ingredients
Raw rice - 1/2 cup
Boiled rice - 1/2 cup
Fenugreek seeds/ venthayam - 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 2 tablespoons
Grated or powdered Jaggery - 1 cup or about 150 grams
Cardamom powder/ Elaichi - 1 pinch
Grated coconut - 1/4 cup

Instructions

1. Soak the raw rice, boiled rice, urad dhal and the fenugreek seeds overnight or atleast for 4 hours.
2. Grind everything together into a thick batter adding a little water if needed.
3. In heavy bottomed vessel, add the jaggery and cardamom powder and about 2 spoons of water and bring it to a boil. 
4. The jaggery would melt and turn into a hot syrup.
5. Filter the syrup to remove any residue and add it to the prepared batter.
6. Also stir in the grated coconut and mix well.
7. To make the paniyarams, heat the paniyraram pan and drizzle very little oil in each hole.
8. Fill 3/4ths of the hole with the prepared batter.
9. Cook on medium heat for about a minute. 
10. With the help of a wooden skewer or a small spoon, flip the paniyarams and cook the other side for a minute.
11. Remove from the pan and serve warm. Tastes great by itself.