Thattai Recipe | How to make Thattai | Diwali Savories | Step by Step Recipe

Today's special is a savory snack Thattai, which is very famous down south. I am not sure if this is made in the other states in North. Though I am sure there must be a similar version available.

From my experience I know there are so many recipes for making thattai. Primary objective being, the fried snack is very crispy to eat. The first memory of this snack goes back to my high school time. During summer vacation, we used to make trips with Dad's close friend from college. The kids were all of same age, so it was fun traveling with them. Auntie's Mom used to make delicious Nippattlu / Thattais with groundnut and sesame seeds.

Then the other memories were with buying from stores during festival seasons. This is not a snack that we normally make at home. Amma made this for me and of course I loved it. Though we can make it in different shapes, it was done in the size of puris.

Thattai

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 1 cup
Urad Dal flour - 2 tsp
Channa dal flour- 2 tsp
Grated Coconut - 2 tsp
Ghee - 2 tsp
Asafoetida - 2 pinches
Oil - 3-4 tbsp
Oil for deep frying.

Optional

Channa Dal - 2 tsp, soaked for 30 mins can be added to the dough
Sesame Seeds - 1 tsp

How to make Thattai

In a kadai, dry roast the urad dal to light brown color. Allow to cool, grind the roasted dal into fine powder.

In a bowl, combine the rice and remaining ingredients. Slowly add water and knead to a stiff dough.

Divide the dough into small balls. Keep it aside.

Heat a kadai with oil for deep frying.

Grease a plastic sheet with oil, take each ball and flatten it down to thin discs.

When the oil is hot, deep fry the thattai until turns to crispy and light golden brown color.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#9

Pesara Karapusa | Moong Dal Ompodi / Sev | Diwali Savories | Step by Step Recipes

For the second day of the Blogging Marathon, as a Diwali special we made this savory dish with Moong dal along with Rice flour. We made both the flours at home, it turns out pretty easy too if you want to make it for smaller quantity.

It's called Pesara Karapusa, which unlike the Ompodi, tastes more like a thin murukku. Of course you can replace this for your regular ompodi in your Bhel or just snack on it. If you have the moong dal flour ready at hand, this is a quick dish to make. 

Sunday was very hectic as I met my school friends. Some of them I am meeting after 19 years. It was total fun time and enjoyed the nostalgic memories that came back to mind. Kids are having a day off because of the local elections, while that gives me some breathing space to make something new.

Pesara Karapusa | Moong Dal Ompodi / Sev ~ Step by Step Picture Recipe

Pesara Karapusa | Moong Dal Ompodi

Ingredients Needed:

Moong Dal - 1 cup
Rice flour - 2 cups
Red chili powder - 1 tsp
Ajwain / Bishop weeds - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Water - for kneading
Oil for Deep frying

For using the Ajwain/ Bishop weeds:

When you have to use Ajwain in snacks as these, you can use it in two ways.

1. Soak Ajwain in 1/2 water for 10 mins, grind in a mixer. Strain through a sieve and use the water while mixing the dough.

2. Heat a pan, dry roast the Ajwain, allow to cool and then grind to a powder.

You can follow either of the above methods when you want to use ajwain in the savories.

How to make Pesara karapusa

Roast and grind moong dal to a fine flour. Same for Rice flour.

In a bowl, take the flours, add red chilies, salt.

Add the vamu/ Ajwain to the flour. Add water slowly till you get a soft dough.

Fill this into Ompodi achu and press it out in hot oil.

Cook on both sides and drain to a kitchen towel.

Sending this to the following events:

Suma, who is hosting my favorite event MLLA# 40, an event started by Susan


Serve it - Festival Potluck hosted by Krithi and Danny 

 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#9

Mixed Flour Ribbon Pakoda

Ribbon Pakodas have always been my favorite snack next to Murukkus. Amma always makes ribbon pakodas for deepavali without fail, so it has come to mean as a festival snack for me. It's also one of those snacks that Adayar Ananda Bhavan makes well. Gone are those days when we slogged over hot oil making tins and tins of these snacks. I pratically find it hard to spend so much time to make for the festivals. Especially when we have to send it across to neighbors, we have to make sure there is enough. Since these shops make them well and fresh, we resorted to buying them for the festivals.

Coming to the recipe for today, we had made Urad dal at home for another snack and had excess of it at hand. So Amma thought of making a Mixed flour Ribbon Pakodas and it came out well. If you are looking for change, then this one will surely interest you.

Ingredients Needed:

Raw Rice flour - 2 cups
Besan / Gram Flour / Roasted Channa Dal - 1/2 cup
Urad dal flour - 1/4 cup
Fried Gram Flour / Pappula podi - 1/4 cup
Salt to taste
Butter - 1 tbsp

Method to prepare:

In a wide bowl, take the rice flour, besan, Urad dal flour, fried gram flour (Pottukadai, Pappulu), salt and butter.

Mix all the dry flour well and slowly add the water just enough to get a pliable dough. It should not be very loose though.

Heat a kadai with hot. Once its hot, simmer to medium flame.

Divide the dough into balls, fill the muruku achu and press over the hot oil. Since the dough is smooth, it will easily slide into the oil. Cook over medium flame to ensure equal cooking on all sides.

When its cooked and it turns golden colour, remove and allow to cool a bit.

Store in a container.

This is delicious snack if you want to take for picnic.


Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#6

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.


Indian Cooking Challenge Members, please leave your post URL in Mr. Linky! Links of only the members will be retained, other links will be deleted.