A Crispy Lentil Snack - Murukku

A crisp and scrumptious lentil snack - Murukku is a very common savory dish during festivals and special occasions in south India. Murukkus are traditionally made with hands and needs a lot of patience to constantly twist and turn the dough for that spiral look.

Ingredients;

• 2 cups of rice 
• 1/4 cup of de-husked black gram 
• 1/4 tsp of asafoetida or Hing
• 1 tsp cumin seeds/Jeera
• 1 tsp.of Salt 
• 1/4 cup of unsalted butter
• Vegetable oil for deep frying

Method: 

For making rice powder: Clean and pick the rice and dry roast it slightly for a few minutes in a wok. Wash and soak the rice for about 1 hour. Drain the rice and spread it on a clean kitchen towel, and let it dry. Grind the rice into fine powder and keep it aside.
Similarly dry roast the De husked black gram (dhuli urad dal) for a few minutes till changes to light brown in color. Cool the gram and grind it into a fine powder.
If the powder is not very fine, sieve both the powders together using a muslin cloth.
Take a big vessel and add both the powders in it, mix in the salt, cumin seeds, asafoetida and the butter into it. Rub the whole mix thoroughly, and make it into a semi solid dough using very little water.

How to shape the Murukkus: Spread a news paper for keeping and shaping the Murukkus. Take a small ball of dough and make a round ball from it. Roll the ball into an elongated tube. Using thumb and index finger twist this tube slowly with, make spiral shapes and make a full circle with this spiral. Make all the Murukkus the same way.
Heat oil in a wok, take the Murukkus with a flat spatula from the news paper and fry these Murukkus in small batches till light golden brown and crisp from outside.

Keep the Murukkus on tissue paper for letting the excess oil to drain out. Store in an air tight container.

These crispy snacks -Murukkus stays good for almost a month if kept in an air tight container. Makes a good after school snack for the kids.






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