Thenkuzhal / Murukku

Source: Spicy Treats

 Ingredients:

4 cups Rice Flour

1 cup Urad Dal Flour

1/4 cup Dalia Powder / Pottu Kadalai Maavu / Gram Flour

4 tbsp Butter or hot oil

1/4 or 1/2 tsp Chili Powder - omitted

1 tsp Ajwain seeds/Omam

1 tbsp Sesame seeds - pan fried without oil

Salt to taste

Adequate water

Oil for deep frying

Method:

First dry roast urad flour in a pan for 1-2 minutes then remove from the stove and sift the flour and keep aside.

Melt butter in a microwave safe bowl and keep aside.

Take a wide bowl, add sifted rice flour, urad flour, dalia powder, salt, ajwain seeds, sesame seeds and mix everything well.

After that add melted butter and combine with the flour well and then add enough water and knead it to a soft, pliable and non sticky dough.

Once done, divide the dough into 10-12 equal parts to fill in the murukku press.

Grease murukku press/achu with oil and fill with one part of dough and close it tightly.  

For Thenkuzhal use 3 round plain achu/plate.

Heat oil in a kadai, while its getting hot. 

Take 2 or 3 ladle turn back side and squeeze roughly in circular motion ( i directly squeezed the murukku in hot oil like ribbon pakoda or omapodi), when oil gets hot drop the shaped murukku and fry in medium hot oil till it turns light golden colour and also the hissing sound and bubbling oil stops.

Then remove it from oil and drain it in paper towel.

(Kim's notes:  Not oily murukku.  If you press dough in hot oil and start to breaks before you can formed a round shape add a little water and knead again till you can the correct consistency of water) 

Thenkuzhal / Magizhampoo Murukku
Sourced: Rak's Kitchen

Ingredients:

2 cups Rice Flour / Idliyappam flour

1/4 cup Urad Dal Flour

3 tbsp Butter + Oil

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

1 & 1/2 tsp Cumin or Sesame seeds

Salt and water as needed

Oil for deep frying

Method:

You can used store bought urad dal flour, slightly dry roasted in a pan or you can skip this too without changing its colour.  Mix flours, butter (melted), oil, asafoetida, cumin, salt well and then add water to make a non sticky dough with no cracks.

Heat oil in kadai apparently, enough to deep fry the murukkus.  Fill the murukku press with this dough with murukku hole plate.  Grease some laddles and make murukku first in that then drop them in oil.  This way we can make decent shapes also our hands wont feel the heat.  Deep fry in medium flame.

Cook both sides till the "Shhh" sound ceases and murukku turn golden in colour.  Drain in paper towel and cool down completely before storing them in airtight containers.

Notes:

Make sure you keep the dough covered through out to avoid drying of the dough.

Even if you want to make in large numbers, do it in batches.  As if you make more dough and keep for while you make murukku, the last batches tend to get fried in deep golden colour, so colour may be different.

Make sure the rice flour you use is fine in texture.  Other wise the murukku will break.  Even if the urad dal powder is less, the murukku will break.

For this murukku its not necessary to fry urad dal / urad dal flour.  They just give rice and ural dal to the mill and get it ground and make murukku.  So if you get ready made urad dal flour at stores, you can use it as such too.

If you add more urad dal powder, then colour will vary.  Also takes long time to cook and crispiness also reduces.  But only if you add very much more than the mentioned ratio, approximately works fine.

Butter give whiter colour and crisp texture.

Make sure you deep fry in enough oil, otherwise the murukku, if touches the bottom of the pan will lead to uneven browning.

After few batches, you may want to top up more oil for frying, as it gets absorbed.