Hope all of you had wonderful and safe Diwali celebrations!! After sharing all the decadent recipe suggestions sweets and savoury snacks before Diwali, it’s time to share what I actually made for Diwali at home. Today I’m here to share with you South Indian Pottukadalai Murukku Recipe or otherwise simple known as Murukku Recipe.
Before getting into the recipe a little about my thoughts on Diwali celebrations home away from home!! I badly miss the pomp and show with which festivals are celebrated in India. Diwali, the festival of lights is the king of the all the Indian festivals and I didn’t feel anything special yesterday. It was a regular working day with everyone busy in ones own chores. Festivities are much more about collective spirit and celebration. The euphoria of Diwali, the traditions of the day, the competing fireworks with neighbours late into the nights are hard to describe.
In India we don’t have to look at a calendar to know Diwali is nearing. We know it’s Diwali week, when we hear fireworks on some street at odd times of the day. I miss those sounds!! Those feelings are beyond what words can narrate, it’s something one has to be in India to understand and experience.
So yes, we might not be able to celebrate the Diwali the way we used to do in India, but we are not far behind. We have our own style of celebrating. It might not be on that day but over the weekends. After all, we are the products of India and we will never lose our roots. There is an Indian Association here, which organises a function during a weekend. It will feature some pooja, dance, food and would be like any other themed party. Yet, we go and have fun. We also have some personal family get-togethers….can’t wait for the weekend!! Living in a country far away from home and still keeping the tradition alive is a major achievement though!!
Coming back to the Recipe!! Murukku is a traditional savoury snack popular in India, especially in South India. This is definitely one of the items made during the Diwali snacks (faral) menu. It is prepared usually with various combinations of rice flour, split chickpeas flour, Black gram (Urad dal) flour, roasted gram flour etc and spiced up with Chilli powder, Carom seeds , Asafoetida, cumin, garlic etc. There are some recipes, which require soaking and grinding to make the flour. The good news today is you don’t need to do all that for this recipe!!
South Indian Pottukadalai Murukku Recipe uses a very few ingredients, the main ones being rice flour and roasted gram flour. I love the texture roasted gram flour adds to the snack. Believe me, there is no lengthy process, you can make this murukku in a jiffy. There is also another version of the same recipe that involves wet grinding of the flour, which I will share later. But this instant version is really easy to adapt as we can buy store bought rice flour and just powder the roasted gram/pottukadalai readily available at home and make this anytime. Instant murukku, easy to make, crispy to munch on…what else do you need? My mom is a pro at making these festival snacks, especially in making huge quantities. But I’m not that patient and make very little quantities.
The common mistakes people do is with the proportions of the flours and the quantity of butter added to the dough. So please stick to the measurement to get perfect crispy murukkus and follow my notes at the end of the recipe card. The addition of pottukadalai makes this murukku very crispy and light with very little butter. Generally this murukku is made without any chilli powder so it will turn only light golden brown colour.
Now comes the climax for this recipe, I got everything ready and the star shaped disc was missing. I tried searching but couldn’t find it. I cannot leave the dough for very long once it was mixed. I was running out of time. I only had the below 3 shapes, and chose to proceed with the thick Sev disc.
I normally use the star shaped disc to do this murukku because I love the thorny look but I was still happy with the out come, as it’s the taste that matters!!….So use whatever shape you like, just make sure the cumin seeds don’t get stuck in the holes of the disc.
Let’s get started with South Indian Pottukadalai Murukku Recipe!!
Step-by-Step process for South Indian Pottukadalai Murukku Recipe:
- In a dry mixer add roasted gram and grind to a fine powder.
- Now combine rice flour, roasted gram flour and sift the flours. Sifting is an optional step though.
- In a mixing bowl add flours, butter, cumin seeds, asafoetida and salt and mix well with your hands.
- Add water little by little and mix it till it is combined well form a soft dough.
- Take the murukku maker and fit in the disc. Grease the murukku press with little oil so that the dough doesn’t stick to the sides.
- Fill about ¾ of the press with the dough and seal the press. Work in a circular manner around the pan of hot oil. You should be able to make 3 or 4 rounds, depending on the size of the pan directly into oil or on a ladle as shown below. But I decided to make it like Sev, so I just directly added as very big murukkus directly into the oil and later just crumbled it.
- Heat oil in a deep pan over medium heat and drop a pinch of dough to check if the oil temperature. When the dough immediately raises to the top with a sizzle then your oil is ready to fry the murukkus.
- If making on a ladle, flip the ladle to transfer it into the oil and fry till light golden brown. Slowly, its colour will begin to change. When this happens, flip them over with care, or simply shift them around a little to ensure even cooking.
- Use tongs or a slotted spoon to lift the murukku out from hot oil. Drain and remove onto an absorbent tissue paper to remove excess oil.
- Let it cool down completely and then store in an airtight container for about a month.
Wasn’t South Indian Pottukadalai Murukku Recipe simple??
Some tips to get perfect murukkus using South Indian Pottukadalai Murukku Recipe –
- The proportions of roasted gram/pottukadalai flour to rice flour is important.
- Murukku is very hard and not crispy, it means fat content is less.
- Murukku is very soft, the fat content is more than required. They also absorb more oil in this case.
- If the murukku breaks while pressing, then the water added to the dough is less which makes it dry and heence breaks while pressing.
- If murukku does not retain it’s shape once you add in oil, then you have added more water to the dough. This also absorbs a lot of oil.
- If murukku is not crispy and light in colour, means the oil temperature was less while adding.
- If they turn too dark very fast, then the oil temperature is too high.
South Indian Pottukadalai Murukku Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup Rice Flour
- ¼ Cup Split Roasted Gram Pottukadalai/Putnalapappu
- ½ Tablespoon Butter
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
- ¼ teaspoon Asafoetida or a little less to suit your taste
- Salt to taste
- Required water to knead the dough
- Required Oil to deep-fry
Instructions
- Grind roasted gram to a fine powder in a dry blender.
- Now combine rice flour, roasted gram flour and sift.
- In a mixing bowl take the flours, butter, cumin seeds, asafoetida and salt. Mix well with your hand.
- Add water little by little and mix it together using your hand till it is combined to form a soft dough.
- Fit the disc of your choice in the murukku maker.
- Grease the murukku press with little oil and fill it up with the dough.
- Now slowly rotate the handle in clockwise direction either directly into oil or on a ladle.
- Heat oil over medium heat and drop a pinch of dough to check the oil temperature. If the dough immediately rises to the top with a sizzle then your oil is ready.
- Now start adding the murukkus to the oil and fry till fry till light golden brown. Drain onto an absorbent tissue paper to remove excess oil.
- Cool down completely and store in an airtight container. You can use it for about a month.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Instead of butter you can also use hot oil.
- If you want it spicy, include a dash of red chilli powder
- Use any shaped disc to make murukku.
- You can use homemade rice flour or store bought.
- Substitute cumin seeds with sesame seeds for a different taste.
- You can substitute asafoetida with garlic paste for a different flavour.
Hope you enjoyed South Indian Pottukadalai Murukku Recipe…..Check out other FESTIVAL RECIPES and QUICK BITES popular on blog.
Many more to come!!…..STAY TUNED!!
Happy Cooking 🙂
Cheers!!
Padma
