Free Imagine Things

This is Murukku for the Indian cooking Challenge - september 2009, started by Srivalli for Cooking4allseasons as you all know, And as you all know I am always last to post anything I do in my blog :), Actually when valli announced that we all make Murukku for September month's challenge, I was quite happy, as I was thinking I will be way ahead of everybody and would keep everything ready for the post to go. As always or is it me ? that's a big question mark followed by a apostrophe mark, happens to jayasri all the time !!!. My canon & daughter's cellphone took some good pictures, actually photo shoot is always from My second daughter (mostly) & most of the time my good friend Mr. Hemanth helps me, with everything, actually I owe this post to him, he copied all the photos which my canon had downloaded into my other laptop & conked off, only he opens it now & then !! copied everything to a pen drive and downloaded it to this computer and now it is going into the blog hurray !!!!, at last . Ok coming back to Murukku, most of the ingredients give by valli are quite same, My verdict is at the end of the check that please..
MURUKKU

• 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
• Asafoetida/ Hing - 1/2 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Butter - 75 gms

Method to prepare:

1. Wash and drain the rice. Shade dry the Rice for 1/2 hr.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Add cumin, Sesame seeds to the flour, mix well.Whether you use Asafoetida powder or the solid ones, you got to mix it in water, make sure it is dissolved before adding to the flour. If its not dissolved properly, when deep frying the murukku, there are chances for the hing to burst our due to air bubbles.Mix in the hing to the flour and finally add the butter.
5. 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.
6. Heat a kadai with oil enough to deep fry. Once the oil is hot enough, simmer to low flame.
7. Take the Muruku Aachu, wash and wipe it clean. Then divide the dough into equal balls.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Remove to a kitchen paper and store it in a air tight container.This normally stays good for weeks, provided you forget about these which hardly happens!

My verdict :I have taken the recipe just like that she has mentioned, I had to make little more than she mentioned for my festival I always make the chakralu on a sheet and slide it to the oil, which always helps me as I get ready for making another bakshanam !!, I did not use the butter as she mentioned I did use a little less as I had to make some more of the savouries and have to consume them, as I get very tempted to munch them almost frequently !!, One more thing which my mom taught me was while making these kind of savouries, I always put the butter on to a plate and required quantity of salt and rub it nicely until it froths up which we call it in kannada as saati hidiyodu I don't know what they say in English or in Tamil, then I mix the flour to it which resembles like a crumble here another method my mom taught me was to check if we have added right amount of butter, once you mix the butter to the flour take a fistful of it and hold it in your fist press it and release it (mushti bigi hidiyiri) if the flour is just intact as you left it, then the amount of butter added is just enough, if it is less it will not form into a fist shape, you have to be careful in adding butter if it more then it might get dissolved in the oil and your savoury will be a disaster, Once or twice when you make these you will understand what I was trying to explain to you.., Hope you enjoyed the murukkus.. don't comment about the colour, as my hubby dear bought a different kind of ready made Rice flour !!!, But the taste was absolutely Gorgeous give it a try and you will love it.., catch you soon as I need to write about other bakshanams and send it to shanti's Deepavali & Dusheera event, But I was not able to post this on time to EC's event, I need to plan everything properly... OOps sorry, bye goodnight..