Super crispy outside and soft inside balls cooked until slightly golden brown made of fermented rice and lentil batter. A perfect South Indian style breakfast dish.
Wash and soak rice, poha and dal separately with fenugreek seeds in enough water for overnight or 6-8 hours.
Grind urad dal in a mixer or wet grinder separately with fenugreek seeds by adding 1/4 cup water at a time or use just enough water to grind the dal.
Similarly, grind rice and poha till you get a smooth batter using only enough water to grind.
Now mix together the dal and rice batter. Add salt in it and let it covered in a warm place for fermentation for up to 10-12 hours.
Heat a teaspoon of oil in a pan and add asafetida and mustard seeds. Let the seeds crackle.
Add curry leaves and onion and saute them just for a minute.
Transfer the tempering into the fermented batter and mix well until combined.
Grease and heat a paniyaram or aebleskiver pan on medium heat. Add spoon full of paniyaram batter in each hole and let it cook covered for 2 minutes.
Using a chopstick or knife flip them over and cook for a minute more.
Remove from pan and serve hot with tomato onion, coconut or garlic chutney.
Notes
For super soft inside and crispy outside the batter should be well fermented.If you live in a cold region, place the batter in a closed oven to ferment. Do not turn on the oven.You may also add grated carrots and more seasonings in the batter.