Butter Murukku / Chakali (2nd recipe)

Butter Murukku / Chakali  (2^nd recipe) - A very popular deep fried snack in Indian cuisine!!

Makes: 18

Please use same measuring cup to measure rice flour, urad  dal  and water. Ratio of rice flour and urad dal is 3: 1 (Here I used Indian standard measuring cup of 100 ml / 4 oz capacity)

Ingredients

3 cups rice flour (Indian standard measuring cup of 100 ml / 4 oz capacity) Nutriyes brand rice flour available in Chennai.

1  cup urad dal flour (first measure urad dal and then make a powder in a small mixer bowl) Please pick good quality urad dal (without any impurities and  latest manufacturing date)

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon black til (black sesame seeds) or 1 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

½ teaspoon hing (asafoetida / kaayam)

1 ½ cup water

300 ml oil for deep frying

Method

Sieve rice flour and urad dal flour separately. Sieve twice.

In a wide bowl, mix sieved flours, salt, butter, hing and sesame seeds (til) or jeera. Mix well with finger tips until well combined and forms like soft bread crumbs.

First start with 1 cup water and later adjust with extra ¼ cup water and make a medium soft dough (neither  too hard  nor too soft). If it’s too hard, it won’t come out from murukku mould. If it’s too soft, it’ll break  and we won’t get proper shape of the murukku. If the dough is  become hard when making murukku, remove  dough from the murukku mould, sprinkle little water (1 – 2 teaspoon), knead again (until soft) and then return back to murukku mould. First prepare murukku (approximately 17 - 18 nos).

Put this dough in a murukku / chakali mould and press it to chakali shapes ( long strips, or desired shapes and sizes ) on a paper or a clean plastic sheet / aluminum foil.

Heat oil in a wide kadai / frying pan and reduce heat to medium. Do not fry on high heat. Transfer this chakkulis / murukku into the cooking oil  and fry on a medium heat until light golden color and crisp  in 3 batches, please keep a safe distance from the gas stove (5 or 6 murukku at a time, depending upon the size of the kadai / frying pan). Drain out from  oil and place it on kitchen towel to absorb extra oil. Please use 2 – 3 paper towels to absorb extra oil. Serve as snack or with tea / coffee. It’s a popular snack for Vinayaka Chaturthi..