Murukku

It has been more than a week now since I have contributed anything here. I made this murukku for Diwali and thought will post it along with Diwali wishes but was caught up in  other things that kept me away from blogging. Neither I could sit and type a post nor could visit friends' posts. Though everything was over, I had the starting problem and I was dragging the post for more than 2 days now. Today I am so determined to post it and here it is. Hope you had a wonderful Diwali and my belated wishes to you.

Diwali is not complete without murukku. Though I make Thattai murukku regularly, I have not made any other murukkus. First I was like if I had the murukku press, I would definitely do it, then SIL got it from India and it was lying untouched for more than 6 months now. When we were discussing about Diwali, my friend Geetha came to the rescue. Hope you all remember her, She is the one who helped me with Mysore pak. She is an expert in all traditional cooking. We made Murukku, Laddu and Gulab jamun for Diwali. I will be posting the recipe for laddu too in a day or two. After this, though I have not mastered the art of murukku making, I can manage now. But without my friend, I don't think I would have made all this. Thanks to her.

This way of making murukku is mostly prevalent around the Kongu region of Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore, Tirupur and surrounding areas. Coming to the recipe.

What are the ingredients needed?

Idly rice, 4 cups

Pottu kadalai/ Roasted gram, 2 cups

Red chillies, 10-15 nos.

Salt to taste

Sesame seeds, 1 Tablespoon

Asafoetida, a pinch

Butter, 4 tablespoons(room temperature)

Oil for deep frying

How it is made?

1. Soak the rice for atleast 4 hours.
2. Grind a small quantity of soaked rice with the red chillies, asaofoetida along with salt and when they are ground into a smooth paste, add the rest of the soaked rice and grind them till they are smooth, with minimum amount of water. (Careful : Add water just right enough to ensure grinding, too much water will affect the final form of murukku)
3. Powder the pottukadalai and sieve them to get the fine powder.
4. Transfer the ground rice to a big bowl, add pottukadalai powder, sesame seeds,  butter and knead them till they are well incorporated.
5. Heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed pan.
6. Then take a murukku press, add the required nozzle, then press the murukku to the desired shape at the back of the slotted spoon. (Tip: Just dripping the slotted spoon in hot oil before pressing, ensures the murukku not to be stuck with the spoon).
7. Once the oil is hot enough, immerse the murukku, deep fry them till they are light golden brown and remove them from oil. 
8. Once done, let them cool down and store in air tight containers.

Notes:

• If you don't have a big slotted spoon for making murrukku, you can use greased banana leaf or greased plastic sheet. You can press murukku to required shape in them and drop in oil.
• Fry murukku in batches, (batch size depends of pan size and amount of oil in the pan), overcrowding will not ensure properly fried murrukus.
• Maintain the temperature of the oil, if the temperature of the oil is reduced the murukku will be soggy and too high temperature, murukku will brown very fast.

Linking this Anu's  South Indian Cooking, Series#3, and Julie's EP Series