Chakli

Chakli/ Murukku & many names this Indian savory snack has. I already have one Chakli recipe on my blog. This one which I am posting today is my Mom's recipe & the best Chakli recipe you will ever find or have tasted. When you bite a piece it so crispy & melt in your mouth types. This is a recipe to keep & share. I made around 60 of these yesterday & have stored them in an airtight box. This recipe is very easy to make & can be done under  2 - 3 hours. This is how I made them,

Makes: 50 - 60 chaklis
Making time: 1-3 hours
fry time: 2- 4 mins
Equipment: Chakli making press with star tip

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of semolina (200 gms)
• 5 cups Rice flour (1 kg)
• 100 Gms Butter
• 100 gms melted hot Vegetable shortening (Crisco or Dalda)
• salt as per taste
• Chili Powder optional
• 3 tspn cumin seeds
• 1-2 cups water for mixing

Method:

1. Dry roast the semolina & Rice flower separately & set aside.
2. Now boil 2 cups of water in a pan, add butter & salt to it.
3. When the water reaches rolling boil, turn the heat to medium & add the semolina slowly into the water stirring continuously.(Like the way we make upma)
4. Now allow the semolina to cook in this water which will take just a minute or 2. Make sure you keep stirring. You will notice that the water is all drained & the semolina has become like a pudding. Just turn off the heat & set this aside.
5. Now in a big bowl add this cooked semolina, rice flour, hot shortening, cumin seeds & water as much as needed to make a soft dough.
6. The dough should neither be very soft nor very thick.
7. Prepare the Murukku making press with a star tip.
8. Now take a large ball size of dough & fill the Murrukku maker with this. Make spiral shapes or just loose Murrukus. I made some large spiral Murukus & some small ones.
9. I piped the Spiral Murrukus on a Parchment paper first.
10. Now fry them in hot oil for about 2 to 3 minutes. I fried 5 Murukkus at a time in the oil. Depending on your Pan size you can decide on how many will fit in. When the Murukku starts sinking, that's when you know it is done.
11. Once they are cooled, store them in an airtight container.

Note:

1. If you want you can skip adding the vegetable shortening & just butter instead.
2. If the Murukku is breaking off while piping, just add some water to the dough to make it a little soft. This process will help the piping process easy.
3. I divided the dough into 2 batch & added chili powder to one batch of dough to make spicy Murukku.
4. To drop Murukku into oil, just lift the murukku with your hands & slip them into the oil. The another method is to slowly bring the parchment paper closer to the oil & slip them into the oil from the paper.

 

Murukku Recipe

 

Back again after a week long break. It was a roller coaster ride in the last 1 week. The haze was very bad here in Singapore & we booked the tickets to India to spend a week's time. Unfortunately we had to cancel the tickets, as the so called "stupid Air India" flight schedule kept changing. The actual time was 10:30pm but then got rescheduled to 12, 1,  2, 2:30, 3, 3:30..... Then got to know that the Pilot was missing blabla... In the midst of all this my son got sick & had high fever. So we decided to cancel our trip & got home. Zion was in the hospital for 2 days & was treated for Viral infection called Croup caugh. Now he is better, all up & running.

 

So coming back to todays post, since childhood Chakkuli /Murukku has been one of my fav savoury snacks. My mom made these mostly during Christmas as part of Kuswar.  Kuswar in Konkani means Christmas sweets. My mom used to make more than 15 varieties of Xmas sweets & we used to go treat our friends with these. My Mom adds eggs, coconut milk in her Murukku recipe. Her Murukkus are very rich & tasty. This recipe here is not my Mom's recipe, but I tried Chef in you's recipe. You can visit here for the Original recipe. The recipe looked very simple & instant kind of. This was in fact instant & I made them under 1 hour. They were very crispy, tasty & we loved it. Since Zion's Birthday was around the corner I made a box full of these to serve the guests.

 

 

Makes around 30 big murukkus & 40- 45 small ones.

Making time: 1 Hour

 

Ingredients

• 3 cups Rice flour
• 1/2 cup Moong Dal (Yellow Lentil)
• 1/4 cup Channa Dal (Bengal Gram)
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds (Jeera)
• 1 tsp Sesame seeds
• 1 large pinch Asafoetida powder
• 2 tbsp Butter
• Salt as per taste
• 1/2 Tspn chili powder
• 1 cup of water
• Oil for deep frying

Directions:

1. Heat a heavy bottom pan, dry roast the Moong dal & channa dal until fragrant. Remove from heat & set aside to cool down. Once this is cooled, grind this to a fine powder
2. Now in the same pan dry roast the rice flour for 2 to 3 mins on low flame. Remove & keep it aside.
3. Add all the ingredients except butter in a large bowl & mix this well with a spatula
4. Now using your fingers, knead it to a bread crumb consistency. Doing this will make the Murukku  crispy
5. Now Add water until it comes together into soft dough (Like Chapati dough consistency)Close the dough with a kitchen towel & set aside for 10 mins.
6. Prepare the Murukku making press with a star tip.
7. Now take a large ball size of dough & fill the Murrukku maker with this. Make spiral shapes or just loose Murrukus. I made some large spiral Murukus & some small ones.
8. I piped the Spiral Murrukus on a Parchment paper first.
9. Now fry them in hot oil for about 2 to 3 minutes. I fried 5 Murukkus at a time in the oil. Depending on your Pan size you can decide on how many will fit in.

Here is the step by step picture:

Use a star tip in your Murukku making presser/machine

Here is the Video on how to make these spiral shapes:

Note:

• These Murukku were very tasty, crunchy but a little hard to bite. I like it this way too so I loved eating them. (Like the ones you get in the store) Well the ones my Mom makes is melt in your mouth kinds:) I will post her recipe soon.
• Make sure you store them in a air tight container. Mine stayed fresh for a week in a airtight box,