Jantikalu or Muruku for Indian Cooking Challenge!

There are certain dishes that I can go on and on about for hours together. And Murukus are one among them! I have been in love with these since time immemorial and yet never got around learning to make them. Yes this was on top of my mind when I wanted to launch Indian Cooking Challenge.

So for the month of September I challenged my fellow bloggers to experiment making murukus and enjoy. This is yet another recipe from my Amma. Though I have helped her making this so many times, I have never done it myself. If truth be told, I called her again when I did this time too. She by touching the dough, said it was in the correct texture. Well that's experience I must say.

And needless to say, the box of Murukus got over within 24 hrs. I wasn't around when the boys came back home. They liked it so much that Chinnu asked his dad to pack this for their snacks. I was really trilled knowing it. But when I asked him if he liked the Muruku, he said with a sly look, "Muuruku Baale Amma" and seeing my fallen face he giggled. My naughty boy knows how to tease momma.

Members, please leave your Muruku URL in Mr. Linky and not your blog URL

Jantikalu or Muruku Recipe

Preparation Time : 20 - 30 mins
Cooking Time : 20 - 30 mins
Makes : app 250 kg of Muruku
Cuisine: Andhra & Tamil Nadu

Utensils needed:
Muruku /Chakli Press.
Kadai

Ingredients Needed:

For the dough

Raw Rice - 4 cups
Urad Dal - 1 cup
Water - app 1/2 cup or more

For Seasoning

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Sesame seeds- 1 tsp
Asafetida/ Hing - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Butter - 75 gms

Oil for deep frying


Method to prepare:

Wash and drain the rice. Shade dry the Rice for 1/2 hr. Dry roast the Urad dal to light brown. Allow it to cool.

If you are using more quantity , you can get it ground in rice mill, else use your mixie to grind both Rice and Urad dal.

First grind rice into a fine flour, keep it aside. then grind the urad dal to fine powder. Refer this post for making Rice flour at home.

In a wide vessel, take both the flours along with salt. Mix well. Add cumin, Sesame seeds to the flour, mix well.

Whether you use Asafetida powder or the solid ones, you got to mix it in water, make sure it is dissolved before adding to the flour. If its not dissolved properly, when deep frying the muruku, there are chances for the hing to burst our due to air bubbles.

Mix in the hing to the flour and finally add the butter. Gather everything well and you will get more of a crumbling mixture. Now slowly add water and knead a dough which is little more softer than the puri dough.

Heat a kadai with oil enough to deep fry. Once the oil is hot enough, simmer to low flame.

Take the Muruku Aachu, wash and wipe it clean. Then divide the dough into equal balls. Fill the Muruku maker with the dough. You can either press it directly over the flames or press over a paper or slotted spoon and gently slide it down the hot oil. But since the quantity mentioned here is less, you can press it directly over the kadai.

Cook over medium flame, using a slotted spoon, turn it over to other side to ensure both sides turn golden colour. You will know by seeing the colour that its cooked. Remove to a kitchen paper and store it in a air tight container.

This normally stays good for weeks, provided you forget about these which hardly happens!

Notes:

1. Things to remember for not making your muruku break into pieces. Its important to roast the Urad dal to just brown and not very brown.
2. Rice used should have some starch to hold the shape, else it might crumble down.
3. Adding too much butter can also result in the fried murukus to break. You can start with half and slowly increase by feel the dough. The dough with the right amount of butter, will be soft but not very soft.
4. If you don't have a muruku aachu, you can use a plastic cover/ ziplock cover with thin hole to press out the dough or even icing bags with different heads can be thought of.

Lataji tried out two different methods, both seems to have turned out well

1 heaped cup of rice (to make it 250grams of rice)
1/4 cup (level) urad dhal.
1 tablespoon butter
yielded 420 grams murukku.

For Vegan option, use this instruction.

For 1 cup (240 ml), rice flour urad dhal flour mix if you add 1 tablespoon vegetable margarine/dalda it replaces butter in a vegan version. We can add hot oil too, a little more than 1 tablespoon will be required.


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