Paddu

And finally I got the Paddu pan. Paddu also known as gundpandulu/ bread idli, is a cross between idlis and dosas. It is prepared in a special muffin tin like pan. I finally got a new one after a lot of deliberation and search. Apparently there is something called Aebleskiver, which is a Scandinavian sweetish paddus.. In the United States it is called pancake puff. I was surprised to see a Thai version of paddus also. What globalisation are we talking about now? Globalisation is probably an ancient phenomena! just that the diffusion back then occurred much slowly and seamlessly..
Back to Paddu again.. We have been coveting for some paddu for a while now. Sadly enough i could not fine it in Patel stores and also at 'Oak Tree road' which is the de facto 'chickpet'. So i started looking online and found something called puff pancake pan. So got it just the other day from 'Target'. Bingo, comes some Paddu from my kitchen.



Well it so happens that I had run of out the idli-dosa rice- the short grain stubby ponni rice/salem-rice/idli-rice or also known as tindi-akki. But I had some arborio rice lying unused and i had no plans of dishing out Risotto in the near future. So I decided to use arborio rice for my paddu. It turned out fine. May be not perfect. I will need to use the Ponni rice and find out how better it will turn out. So till then it is going to be arborio!

You will need,

For the batter:

Urad dal 1 measure (measure is the container you used to measure, could be a small cup, big spoon, anything; but use the same container to measure out all ingredients)
Rice 3 measures
Channa dal 2 tsp
Methi a pinch
Beaten rice/poha 2 tsp
Koshar salt to taste

Post-batter!!!
Onion 1 small minced
Curry leaves 4-5 minched
Green chillies 2-3 minced

method:

• Soak all the ingredients under batter for at least 4-5 hours, preferably over night. Grind it into a smooth paste. Set aside to ferment for as long as required. Here, right now during winters, fermenting needs almost 18-20 hours!!!
• Once the batter is fermented, i.e the batter has almost doubled in volume and smells sour, fold in the minced onions, curry leaves and green chillies, very gently.
• Heat the paddu pan. Grease it as required. Mine is a cast iron pan so required a lot more grease than a non-stick pan would.
  
• Pour spoon fulls of batter into the holes. Drizzle some oil and cover.
• Cook for about 10 minutes. Turn them over and cook till done
• Serve hot with coconut chutney and ghee.