THENKUZHAL MURUKKU, MANUKUPPU

Thenkuzhal Murukku is a popular savory snack usually made for festivals especially for Diwali and Krishna Jayanthi. It’s a crispy and tasty snack made using rice flour and urad dal flour.

Murukku derives from the Tamil word for “twisted”, which refers to its shape. Murukku is typically made from rice flour and urad dal flour. Murukku is especially popular in the states of Karnataka (where it is called chakli), Tamil Nadu,
Kerala, Andhra Pradesh. It is also popular in countries with substantial presence of Indian and Sri Lankan diaspora, including Singapore, Fiji, and Malaysia.

Ingredients & Preparation

Murukku is typically made from rice and urad dal flour. The flours are mixed with water, salt, chilli powder, asafoetida and either sesame seeds or cumin seeds. The mix is kneaded into a dough, which is shaped into spiral or coil shapes either by hand or extruded using a mould. The spirals are then deep fried in vegetable oil.

Depending on the region, there are several variations of the thenkuzhal murukku. Manukuppu Ma is the basic flour made out of lentils such as moong dal and chana dal along with rice and stored to make various types of murukkus.

Salted Cheedai

Ingredients:

Urad dal/black gram – veesam 1/16 padi

Rice – 1 padi

Crushed til/sesame seeds – 1 and ½ palam

Cumin seeds – 3/8 palam

Asafetida – 1/8 palam

Salt

Method:

● Clean one padi rice and wash it well. Drain the water well. Grind it in the stone grinder.
Remove the husk from the rice flour by sieving it. Fry urad dal and the rice husk separately until golden brown. Mix both in a vessel and grind it to flour.

● Then mix it with the above stone ground rice flour. Add crushed sesame seeds, cumin seeds to the rice flour mixture. Dissolve asafoetida in water and mix it in the flour.

● Add salt, crushed sesame, jeera and asafoetida. Add grated coconut 10 palam and knead it with enough water. Make small sized balls (slightly bigger than a pea size). Spread a cloth and keep all the balls separately without touching each other. Dry it in the air.

● Fry 20 to 30 balls in ghee or oil until slightly red in color. Repeat this procedure for the rest of the flour also.