Rice and Lentil Savory Crispies (Murrukku)

Crunchy Murrukkus are loved any time of the year – be it diwali or not.  However, I somehow  make them only during Diwali and the rest of the year I get ready made ones from the store.  Its not very hard or complicated to make murrukkus. Its just the deep frying part that I am not crazy about.  This time when I made these my daughter was not around and so when my son complimented me that these murrukkus had turned out really good, my daughter went ‘Oh wow! you made these ? I thought you bought them’. Well, I take that as a compliment and as you will agree ‘homemade is always best’!

OK so although this recipe is not very complicated, you do need a tool and that is the ‘chakli or sev press’.  It is quite easy to work that – you just need to place the right template on the bottom of the press, then fill it with your dough and close it by turning the lid at the rim.  And then you turn the press from the top in circular motion so that the dough gets pushed out of the template (or sieve) and you do this directly over hot oil so the murrukkus in our case will fall into the oil and get fried.

This recipe will make about 40-45 murrukkus

Ingredients:

Rice flour 2 cups

Besan flour 1/2 cup

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp ajwain seeds

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp olive oil

enough water (about 1 cup) to knead

Method:

Wash and dry your sev press and the chakli sieve and have them ready.

Take a wide and deep frying pan and fill with any cooking oil to about half of its capacity.  Heat on stove and keep it on medium flame.

Meanwhile, take all the ingredients into a medium size bowl and then slowly add water 1 tbsp at a time till you are able to form a nice soft dough.

Take some amount of the dough and put into the press(after putting the chakli mold in the bottom) and then close the press tightly.  Now bring the press near the fryer with the hot oil and keeping the press above the oil slowly start making ‘murrukkus’ in the oil. (Just start turning the press handle in a clock-wise direction and the murrukkus (or chaklis) will start falling into the hot oil. When enough of the dough has rolled to form one murrukku, cut the the end of the dough using your fingers and then move the press to another vacant part in the oil to form the next murrukku. Continue like that till you have about 4-5 murrukkus in the pan.

Fry the murrukus in the hot oil on medium flame turning them occasionally to avoid burning and remove them onto a plate lined with a paper towel when they are golden brown (about 2-3 minutes).

Notes:

1.Do not keep them for too long in the hot oil or else they will become too hard upon storage.

2. When you take them out they may seem soft initially but do not worry they will harden as they cool.