Ring Murukku

Indian snacks are always a class apart. And Diwali is the perfect time to make a whole lot of sweet and savoury snacks to share with family and friends. I love trying something new each year. In my previous post I had shared my favorite Chakli recipe made with whole-wheat flour. I’m sharing another quick and simple snack recipe perfect for Diwali and one that you can make even at the last moment, Ring Murukku or murukku with a hole ;-)

These Ring shaped crunchy snacks are to die for.  I absolutely love them and have always until now just bought them from the snack section at the Indian store. With the Diwali fever doing it’s rounds I felt I should try making this at home atleast once and I was very pleased with the results. They turned out super crispy and crunchy. I wanted a slightly savory aka spicy snack so I added a little extra red chilli powder than the recipe called for to the dough and the ring murkku had a good bit of heat and was perfect and just my taste.

They are so easy to make, you don’t need any special equipment, just shape them into small rings and fry until golden brown.

I did not take a lot of step-wise pics but have shared a few that I managed to click. It's not a fun task to take pics while handling flour and oil ;-)

Ring Murukku

You’ll Need

1 cup Rice flour

1 Tblsp Urad dal flour/Moong dal flour  

1 tsp Red chilli powder  

1 Tblsp Sesame seeds     

1/8 tsp Asafoetida            

1 tsp Jeera         

1 cup water 

1 Tblsp Butter     

Salt - as needed

Oil - for deep frying

Directions

1. Make urad dal/moong dal flour – roast a handful of urad dal/moong dal  until mild brown and fragrant, powder it and sieve it and keep aside 1 Tblsp of the powder.

2. Boil 1 cup of water in a non-stick vessel or any vessel. Add butter and salt to the boiling water and then Rice flour and 1 Tblsp Urad dal flour, mix well. Immediately switch off the flame, cover and let the dough cool down. If too sticky then add some more flour. When the dough becomes cool enough to handle, add jeera, red chilli powder, sesame seeds and knead to form a dough.

3. Pinch out small round balls of dough of equal size and roll them into a thin rope and join the ends of the rope to form a ring.

4. Deep fry few per batch in hot oil. While one batch is getting cooked, you can make the next batch. Or make all the rings together and fry little by little. Fry in high flame until the rings are golden brown, but do not let oil fume.

This is a perfect Tea-time snack and is best eaten the day it is made. But if stored in a good air-tight container you can enjoy them for couple more days. So enjoy snacking and have a fun filled and Happy Diwali!

-Manju

Whole-wheat Chakli / Murukku

It’s Diwali season again, the Festival of Lights! People are all busy cleaning up their homes, buying pretty new clothes and lots of fire-crackers and diyas. Many even draw beautiful Rangoli in front of their homes surrounded by lamps of light (diya). It’s a fun festival, colorful, bright and noisy with all the fire-crackers bursting away….and that’s just how we like to celebrate Diwali.

Oh! and the best part…of course the goodies. So many lovely sweets and snacks are prepared and shared and the preparation starts from few weeks before the big day. Some prefer to just buy the snacks, others prepare them at home themselves…either way it’s a lot of fun.

I have celebrated Diwali in our own small ways after our marriage. I still remember our first Diwali when we were just newly married and living in Chennai. Wanting it to be extra special, I made Besan Laddo, Chakli and Gujiya (karanji), all for the first time, and apart from the chakli getting semi-burnt, the rest all came out fine!!  We decorated the house with lots of light and along with my sis-in-law and bro-in-law (who were also newly married), we burst lots of crackers and had a lot of fun. My sis-in-law’s name is also Manju.

Manju chechi (as I call her) had called us to her home for dinner and she made some amazing Dal kachori, Veg Biriyani, raita and Gulab jamuns that evening and it was just splendid. I remember all this just like it happened yesterday…Nostalgia is a weird thing! :-)

After that our next Diwali’s have all been here at Minneapolis and it has been fun every year. We usually go to the temple and burst crackers there and then have a grand potluck dinner at our friend’s place followed by more bursting of crackers. It’s a festival we eagerly wait for each year. We have been lucky to have friend’s whom we can proudly call next to family and we don’t miss a chance to celebrate any festival.

Last year I made some Ring Murukku and Chakli along with some fusion sweets like Gajar Halwa and turned some of it into Carrot Halwa filled Chocolates and Spiced Mango burfi. 
I will share the ring murukku recipe soon as well. Apparently it has taken my lazy bones a whole year to share this with you :) I’m yet to decide what to make this year…Lol!

I love crunchy snacks and chakli (murukku) is my favorite of them all. My mom’s elder sister, my velliammachi, used to make the most awesome chakli’s I’ve ever eaten. Infact these don’t come quite close to how she used to make them, but for my first try it came out very decent I should say and they are made with whole wheat flour. 
Well apart from the frying in oil, you can say it’s a bit healthy :-P 

Whole-wheat Chakli / Whole-wheat Murukku

Makes : approx 12-20 chakli depending on size

  

You'll Need

1 cup Wheat flour             

¾ tsp Red chilli powder               

1 ½ tsp Jeera/ ajwain               

1/8 tsp  Asafoetida         

1 tsp hot oil

Salt - as needed

Room temp water - as needed to form the dough

Oil - For deep frying

 Directions

1.  Place the atta powder in a clean white muslin cloth and tie it up like a pouch. Using a steamer or idli vessel , steam cook atta. Cover and Steam cook for 15 mins to 20 mins.

2.  Untie and when it is warm enough to handle, break it roughly and sieve it into another bowl and break any bigger pieces with hands.

3.  Heat oil in kadai, meanwhile you prepare the dough. Add red chilli powder, asafoetida, salt and jeera and a tsp of hot oil and Make dough with water. It should be a stiff yet smooth and non sticky dough. 

I used the star shaped hole plate to make these chakli.

4. Press the dough using the pressing gun and form into a concentric circle shape or coil shape. I pressed in onto my silicon mat (you can use an oiled plate or wax paper to shape the dough onto)

5. Make sure the oil is hot enough and Using a spatula transfer each chakli into the hot oil and deep fry both sides until crisp and golden brown. 

Drain over a paper towel and store in an air-tight container.

Notes:

1.  Never let oil fume at any point, regulate the heat now and then

2.  Make sure water doesn't enter the wheat powder while steaming and once steamed the whole-wheat flour (atta) should look dry and devoid of moisture.

Recipe Source: Rak's Kitchen

Have a fun and safe Diwali!

-Manju

Gajar ka Halwa (Indian Carrot Pudding) - pressure cooker version using condensed milk

Let me begin by wishing you all a very Happy Diwali. I hope you all had tons of fun with lighting up your homes with beautifully decorated diyas, bursting lots of firecrackers and of course eating plenty of sweets and savories and got a chance to spend some quality chance with your friends and family. Diwali is the most celebrated Indian festival and its known as the Festival of Lights!

I grew up abroad, just like how my son is growing up now (and by abroad I mean ‘not in India’), so the only reason I know a lot about Indian food, Indian festivals, cultures and rituals is because of my parents influence on us. Not just my parents, but our Indian neighbors, school friends, the indian shops etc. So apart from authentic Keralite festivals, we used to celebrate all possible Indian festivals at home, atleast by making some special food or calling friends home etc.  So I want my son to also grow up and know all about Indian food and festivals through us.

As always I din't plan anything until the last moment and ended up making all the sweets and few savory snacks at the last moment. My plan for Diwali was mainly the dishes I wanted to take for a potluck our friends were organizing and ofcourse burst firecrackers. Anyway, I just had to take 1 item, but I felt a potluck was a good opportunity to make few more dishes and share with friends...afterall a food blogger needs taste testers ;-) 
I did not want to make just traditional Diwali sweets and wanted to try some fusion varieties and decided to make stuffed chocolates with Indian sweets as fillings. I wanted a good thick filling for the chocolates and Gajar ka Halwa was my instant choice. Afterall who does not love a good Indian Carrot Pudding.

As my main focus was on the chocolates I wanted to make a quick and instant Carrot Halwa and decided to put my pressure cooker to use and made use of sweetened condensed milk because I realized I had no sugar in the house after I finished laboriously grating 3 cups of carrots...sheesh! But it worked like a charm and tasted perfect with the creamy carrots infused with cardamom and saffron and the right balance of sweetness. 

Carrot Halwa  (Pressure cooker version using Sweetened Condensed Milk)

Recipe Source: Adapted from Edible Garden

Serves : 3 - 4 people

You’ll Need

Grated Carrots – 3 cups (packed)

Full Fat Milk – 1 ½ cups

Water – ½ cup

Sweetened Condensed Milk – 1/3 cup + 2 tblsp

Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp

Saffron strands soaked in milk – a pinch

For Garnish:

Pistachio/Broken Cashew Nuts/Slivered Almonds – 2 tblsp

Raisins – 1 tblsp

Ghee – 1 tblsp

Directions

1.  If using saffron strands, soak it in 1 tblsp milk before you start making the halwa.

2. Add the grated carrots, milk and water into a pressure cooker. Stir it well and put on the whistle and let it cook on high until you hear 2 -3 whistles. Then turn off the heat and allow the pressure go off by itself.

3. Open the lid and you’ll still see plenty of milk soaking up the carrots. Turn on the heat and cook again until the milk dries up and the carrots look grainy.

4. When the carrot mixture looks dry, add the condensed milk, saffron (with the milk it was soaked in) and cardamom powder and cook again until it reaches the consistency you prefer. (I wanted the halwa to be creamy yet dry so continued to cook until it reached a dry yet smooth texture)

5. In a separate pan, heat the ghee and fry the nuts until they brown slightly and fry the raisins until they bloom and add it to the carrot halwa. ( I added the ghee too into my halwa for more flavor)

Suggestions:

1. I grated my carrots very thinly, but if you like bigger pieces of grated carrots use the cheese grating portion of the grater (with bigger holes)

2. If you do not prefer to fry the nuts/raisins in ghee, use oil or butter instead.

3. Saffron adds a lot of flavor , but if you do not have it, don’t worry…your halwa will still taste nice :-) But its recommended.

The Gajar ka Halwa was amazingly good and we loved it. For lil’Appu I rolled it out into balls as he loves anything that’s in a laddoo shape and he ate 2 or 3 (which is a big deal for me).

And as for the chocolates this is what is coming up next, so stay tuned and keep reading…

-Manju