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| Murukulu |
For Janmashtami/Gokulashtami / Krishna Jayanthi, prepared this Murukku / Murukulu / Chakli. Rice flour is a main ingredient in this crispy snack, groundnuts / peanuts are added for that extra taste. The groundnuts are roasted lightly to give that extra crispy and crunchy flavor. This south-Indian addictive Murukku is almost forgotten snack in big cities, but its nutritive value is immense. It is a great after-school snack for the kids.
With less ingredients, this tasty dish is best savored with a cup of coffee/ tea during the evenings. When perfectly packed in an air-tight container, Murukku can be stored almost a month as no ghee or butter is used in the recipe.
Rice crop is cultivated in almost all the states in India. India has a long record of crop started over four decades ago. Rice is cultivated under widely varying conditions of rainfall, altitude and climate. In the tank-fed areas of the zone, if the monsoon is favourable, a first
crop of medium duration is taken from June-July to November- December, followed
by a second crop called manavari (December-February). During those days, the rice used in the recipe was manawari rice. The rice was good for these kinds of snacks, which is called pindi vantalu in Andhra Pradesh and surrounding the state.
Ingredients:
1 kg groundnuts
1 1/4 kg raw rice
2 tsp. cumin seeds
2 tsp. carom/tymol seeds (vaamu)
salt as needed
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| Traditional Sieve, Murukku Maker (both iron and aluminium), slotted ladle and steel rod with sharp edge |
Cooking Method:
1. Clean and soak rice in water for about 3 hours. Once the rice is soaked, drain the water completely and dry the rice on a cloth for about half an hour, until the water is evaporated.
2. In a mixer powder the rice, pass them through the sieve to make a fine powder keeping it aside.
3. In a heavy bottomed pan, roast the peanuts lightly to just remove the outer skin without changing its color. Once cooled, powder the groundnuts too in a mixer and sieve them to a fine powder. (Here the groundnuts might stick to the sieve (for the powdered groundnuts to pass through the sieve easily, mix little rice flour).
5. In a broad vessel, mix powdered rice, groundnuts, cumin seeds and carom seeds. Add salt as per the taste. Make a stiff dough by adding normal water little at a time (the dough should be very tight to hold the shape, as well as, to soak up less oil while deep frying).
7. Heat oil in a wide heavy bottomed pan. Once the oil is heated up, check the oil temperature by dropping little dough into the oil. The oil temperature is perfect when the dough sinks to the bottom of the pan and quickly rise to the surface.
8. Fill the dough into the Murukku maker and press them to desired shape. The dough can be pressed on the back of the slotted spoon (the ladle which has holes) for ease and drop them into hot oil slowly holding its handle. Alternatively a wax paper can be used. Traditionally, banana leaf was used to serve the purpose. Here 3 star Murukku disc shape is used in preparing the Murukkulu.
9. Make 3 to 4 Muruku at a time and deep fry them into light golden color. Lift the Muruku with the help of a thin iron/steel rod for ease, as well as to retain the shape of the Murukulu.
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| Chakli |
Note:
1. Do not grease the Murukku maker with oil. Just apply water to the mold as and when required.
2. The slotted spoon should also not be greased with oil. Otherwise the Murukku will stick to the spoon and will not get into the oil.
3. Fresh groundnut oil should be used in making of this Murukulu.
4. One star-shaped disc can also be used in making this Muruku, but consumes lot of time.
5. Little chilly powder can be used in the recipe, but adding of this changes color of the Murukus.
6. When the oil is heated up too much, add in little fresh oil to the pan, for the temperature to go down.
7. Always keep the rest of the dough covered with wet cloth. If the dough gets hard sprinkle some water and proceed with the cooking.
