Murukku for Indian Cooking Challenge

The challenge for this month was Murukku. I tried this out within almost a week of coming to know that this was what we were supposed to be making.
As far as the recipe goes, I followed it exactly. The only thing I would do differently next time is use ready made rice flour. I know Valli said making rice flour at home from the scratch would give us a kick.....but me being me, the only kick it give me is a mental kick for not having used ready made flour. I spent ages and ages trying to powder the rice finely and ended up with something that was a little finer than rava.....I didn't have the patience to keep going beyond that. Inspite of that the murukku turned out to be really tasty albeit a little grainy. Oh.....and the original recipe will give you a LOT of murukku. So next time around, maybe I'll halve the recipe.

Here is the recipe:

What you need:

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


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 mil, 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.

In a wide vessel, take both the flours along with salt. Mix well. Add cumin, Sesame seeds to the flour, mix well.
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 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.

Since I packed this away almost as soon as I made it to take to my SIL, I don't have any pics of the murukku. It did look decent.....you'll just have to take my word for it!!!

There's a lot of cooking going on in the household.....but there's been no time for pics or for posts......
We've set up a little golu at home and the little girl and I are busy either going to other houses for vethala pakku or inviting people home for it.
Here's wishing all my readers a wonderful navaratri.