Murukku

Let me begin with a story as to how we were introduced to murukku. It so happened that once we received a plate of snacks from our neighbours who recently visited their home town in South India. In that was a fried white colored chakli style namkeen. On giving it a try both me and Vandana instantly liked it very much. At a couple of other home visits we asked our neighbours to get packets of murukku for us since it is not commonly available in the North.

A few weeks back we visited one of our other friends whose parents were visiting them. At tea we were again sered Murukku. I was delighted to know that they were made at home! I asked auntyji about the recipe and she assured me it was pretty simple. The last bit was to have the machine used to make murukku. She was more than happy to share that with us. So here I was all set to try this recipe. The machine is shown below.



Background

Murukku is a South Indian snack more commonly known in other parts of India as Chakli. I must admit that although the physical shape of Chakli and murukku is supposed to be the same, they are made of different materials. Chakli is made of gram and rice flour while Murukku is made of urad dal and rice flour.

Murukku

Murukku is made in 2 varieties - Murukku & Kai Murukku. Kai Murukku is made by hand while and has a twisted chakli shape while murukku is made with a press machine as mentioned earlier. Both taste delicious. Murukku does not have a strict recipe and canbe varied based on what taste you prefer.

Ingredients

Non-glutinous Rice flour 1/2 kg
Dhuli Urad Dal 70-80 gms
Butter or Ghee 50-60 gms
Jeera or Ajwain seeds 1 1/2 tsp (Any one type Based on your preference)
Salt to taste
Red Chilli powder (Optional)
Very little water to knead the dough
Oil for frying

Method

[1] Soak Dal for 15-30 minutes. This reduces boiling time later.

[2] Put the Dal with very little water (Just enough to boil it) in a pressure cooker and boil it till done

[3] Grind Dal in a mixie or mixer



[4] Now put this Dal paste in a kneading tray and mix all the ingredients (Salt, Jeera/Ajwain,Chilli powder, Butter and Rice flour) slowly. Rice flour requires very little water to form a dough. However a few splashes or water may be required in the kneading process. The dough should neither be very soft nor very hard. The below picture should give a feel of how it should be. See the finger impressions. I did not press very hard to get this.


[5] Heat oil at high flame. All frying for murukku happens are high flame only!

[6] Fill the murukku machine with some dough and press it over the hot oil in the kadhai.

[7] Let murukku fry till it stops bubbling. Turn once.


[8] Remove on a newspaper to absorb extra oil. After cooling store in an air tight container

[9] Enjoy murukku



Variations
As mentioned, you can put some of your favourite masalas in the dough for added taste but this is experimental. Murukku on its own tastes divine. Also if you are diet conscious, you can skip adding the butter or ghee. This will only make your murukku a bit hard.

Gotchas

• Most important things in this recipe that can easily go wrong are:

• Ratio of Urad Dal to Rice flour
• Dough consistency

Pay special attention to those. If your dough is a bit hard (Too much pressure to get the murukku out of the machine), spash some water and make the dough softer. If your dough is too soft (Murukku turns out to be bubbly after frying - See picture), then add some rice flour to make the dough a bit firmer.

• Murukku has to be extremely crisp. Always store murukku in an air tight container or else they may go soggy.
• If you are using salted butter, reduce the amount of salt you add to the dough.
  
• Lastly, be extremely careful while frying. The oil may sputter sometimes if dough consistency is not OK.