Kai Murukku ~Amma's Special

For so many years, murukku meant only the kaimurukku for me. We called murukku only  that. Later on, I realised its a more general way of referring murukku, muthuswarams or thenkuzhal...Okay, you got the drift. When I posted this month's ICC, I had mentioned about kai murukku. While on twitter, Aparna asked me about the recipe for the murukku and I promised her I shall post it soon. These pics have been lying in drafts for more than 4 months. Thanks to Aparna, that it finally came to the light of blogosphere. Before you all jump to the conclusion that I an expert on this, let me confess, I am merely documenting my Amma's recipe. It was she who did this when she was here. To be frank, I haven't made any serious attempts on this regard.

And my Amma is an expert and unfortunately me and my sister doesn't seem to inherit that genes.

Things to keep ready

Fresh rice flour is used for making murukku. I am not sure how best result you might get with store bought flour. Since I have seen only made with fresh flour. As with all Indian  avories, this recipe also requires you to soak the raw rice for 1 hour. Drain and shade dry. Then pound in the mixer grinder or near by flour mill. Seive the flour.

Split urad dal is to be roasted on low fire till it is pink. Cool and powder. Sieve to get fine powder. Ura dal flour can be prepared a day ahead or so.

Solid hing gives a better flavor than the powdered ones. If using solid hing,soak it in warm water for half an hour. If hing powder is used, then also dissolve it in the water.

The proportion of rice flour :urad dal powder is 7: 1. Measure using the same cup. Its not necessary that you use the standard measuring cup. Any size cup can be used provided you measure both the ingredients with the same cup. Quantity of the rest of the ingredients are indicative. So adjust according to the size of the measuring cup you use.

Now on to the recipe,

Ingredients

7 cups of fine raw rice flour

1 cup of roastedd and powdered urad dal

Butter - 3 tblspn

Jeera/Cumin -1 tblspn

Hing -

Salt

Water to make the dough

Oil to deep fry

Method

Measure rice flour and urad dal powder into a wide vessel. Add butter, jeera . Dissolve the salt in the hing water. Add the hing,salt water. Mix the ingredients well. Add water to make  pliable dough. When making in large quantities, its ideal to prepare the dough in batches.

Spread a cotton cloth. Take a lemon sized dough in your hand and start making murukku. I should have taken a video but I missed. I shall surely do that next time. You can apply some coconut oil on your hands. This will help to make the swirls with out breaking.

Leave it for 15 minutes to dry on the cloth, before you deep fry. Meanwhile heat oil in a  kadai. Slowly lift the murukku from the cloth using a flat spatula (Dosa thiruppi) and transfer to a plate. Slowly slide them into oil. When one side is fried, flip with a slotted spoon. When both sides are cooked, it will have a golder color. And also the sizzling of the oil around the murukku ceases.

Drain and when cool, store in airtight containers.

These are crunchy but not the melt in your mouth kind. If you add more butter, it will drink more oil also, thought it might not be very hard.