Mullu Murukku / Magizham poo Thenkuzhal recipe

Ingredients:
Processed Rice Flour - 4 cups
Bengal Gram Dal - 3/4 cup
Moong dal - 1/2 cup
Salt - 8 tbsp
Asafodeita solid piece - 1 inch
Butter - 100 gms (unsalted)
Cardamom powder - 1 pinch
Oil for frying

Method:

Mullu Murukku Achchu

Fry moong dal and bengal gram dal separately, till they become golden brown in colour. Grind them to a fine powder and if needed seive them. Mix them together and grind it again so that they blend finely. Soak salt in 1/2 cup of water and let it dissolve completely. Soak asafodeita in 1/4 cup of water.

For 2 cups of rice flour, 1 cup of dal mixture powder is needed. In a shallow bowl add rice flour, dal flours, salt water, asafodeita water, butter, cardamom powder and make a soft dough. Heat oil and squeeze the dough into it using mullu murukku achchu. Turn it to the next side and fry it till it becomes golden brown in colour.

Drain it in tissue paper. Store it in airtight container.

Recipe for Thenkuzhal

For this Urad dal is used.

Ingredients:
Processed rice flour - 4 cups
Urad dal - 1 cup
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Salt - 6 to 8 tbsp
Asafodeita piece - 1 inch
Butter - 100 gm
Oil for frying

Method:

Then Kuzhal plate

Soak salt in 1/2 cup of water and wait till it dissolves completely. Add asafodeita to 1/4 cup of water. In a shallow vessel add rice flour, urad dal, cumin seeds, butter along with salt water and asafodeita water. Make a soft dough by adding water little by little. The dough should not be thick or liquid. It should be soft enough so that it can be easily squeezed using the Thenkuzhal plate.

Heat the oil in a pan, add the dough into the cylindrical tube of the Murukku achchu. Use the thenkuzhal achu to squeeze the thenkuzhal. Donot squeeze the thenkuzhal so close but spread it over the pan. Use the given quantity of butter or ghee.

Never store the mixed dough for a long time. The thenkuzhals will become red if the dough is left for a long time. So mix the dough whenever needed.

Vella Cheedai

Sweet Seedai or Vella seedai is another dish that is made for Krishna Jayanthi/ Gokulashtami/ Janmashtami neivedhyam.


Ingredients:
Processed rice flour - 4 cups
Urad Dal flour - 1/2 cup
Coconut - 1/2
Sesame seeds - 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
Jaggery - 2 cups
Ghee - 1 1/2 cups
Oil to fry

Method:
Fry the processed rice flour till it turns slightly red in colour. Measure the flour and for every cup take equal cup of water in a hard bottom pan and bring it to boil. Add the jaggery to it and keep stirring till it dissolves completely.

Grate or cut the coconut into small pieces and add it to the boiling water. add cardamom powder and bring it to boil again. Add the processed rice flour slowly and make it to a dough form.

Remove from flame and spread it on a shallow plate. Add urad dal powder and sesame seeds to it and mix thoroughly. Make gooseberry sized balls of the dough and fry it in oil. Remove from flame when it is between golden brown and dark brown in colour. Drain the excess oil.

Uppu Seedai - Salt Seedai

Seedai is the main neivedhyam ingredient for Krishna Jayanthi or Janmashtami.

Ingredients:
Processed rice flour - 4 cups
Urad Dal flour - 1/2 cup
Coconut - 1 big
Bengal gram dal - 1/4 cup
Pepper powder - 2 tsp(optional)
Cumin seeds powder - 2 tsp
Asafodeita - 1 inch piece
Salt - 6 tbsp
Oil for frying
Butter - 100 gms

Method:
Fry the rice flour in dry pan till it becomes slightly red in colour. Soak bengal gram in water for about 1/2 an hour. Add salt to 1 cup of water and mix well till it dissolves thoroughly. Add the asafodeita piece to 1/2 cup of water. Grate the coconut.

In a shallow bowl add rice flour, urad dal flour, grated coconut, butter, pepper powder, cumin powder, and mix well. Add about 34th of the salt water, 1/4th of the asafodeita water and make a dough. If the water is not enough add little water to it and make a soft dough. Cover the vessel with a wet cloth.

Wash and soak a soft cloth. Squeeze it dry. Spread it on floor. Make small balls of the dough and place it on the cloth. Once about 20 to 25 balls are made, heat oil and add the balls to the oil. Keep turning and when it turns golden brown remove from flame.

Instead of Pepper and Cumin Powder, Red Chilly powder can also be added. For the given quantity of rice, the required quantity of butter is 100 gms it have to be added.

Lemon Poha | Elumichai Aval

Aval or Poha makes a great evening tiffen for the kids. Making it in different ways enhances the taste.

Ingredients:
Poha - 1 cup
Salt to taste
Oil - 2 tbsp
Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tbsp
Bengal gram dal - 2 tbsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
Asafodeita - 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves - a few
Coriander leaves - a few
Green chillies - 2 nos

Method:
Wash and soak poha for about 1/2 an hour. Drain excess water and spread it on a shallow vessel of plate. Heat 1 tbsp of oil and pour it on the poha and mix it with the back of a laddle or fork so that the Poha doesnot break. Heat the remaining oil and add mustard seeds, when it splutters add urad dal, bengal gram dal, turmeric powder, asafodeita and slit green chillies. Add it to the poha and mix well. Add salt, finely chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves. Add the lemon juice and mix thoroughly.

Thayir Aval|Poha in Curd

Ingredients:
Poha - 1 cup
Unsour Curd - 2 cups
Salt to taste
Oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Urad Dal - 1 tbsp
Asafodeita - 1 pinch
Green Chilly - 1 no
Curry leaves - a few
Coriander leaves - a few

Method:
Wash and soak poha in water for about 1/2 an hour. Drain the excess water if any. Heat a seasoning laddle and heat oil, when hot add mustard seeds. Add the urad dal after the mustard seeds splutter. Slit green chilly and add it to the seasoning laddle. Saute for 1/2 a min and add it to the poha. Add curry leaves and coriander leaves and mix well with a fork or spoon. Add salt and toss it well. Just before neivedhyam (for Krishna Jayanthi) or serving, add the curd and mix well.

Sweet Poha

Ingredients:
Poha - 1 cup
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Cardamom Powder - 1 tsp
Ghee - 1 tbsp

Method:
Soak poha for about an hour. Drain all the water and separate it with the back of the laddle. Add ghee, cardamom powder, grated coconut and jaggery to it and mix well.

Ribbon Pakoda - Recipe for a crispy south Indian savoury

Nada Pakada, Tape are the other names given to this south Indian savoury.

Ingredients:

Processed Rice Flour - 2 cups

Besan Flour - 1 cup

Butter - 100 gms

Oil to fry

Salt - 2 tbsp

Hing - 1 inch piece

Red Chilly Powder - 2 tbsp

Method:

Soak hing in water. Add water to salt to make 1/5th cup of salt water.

In a shallow mixing bowl, add rice flour, besan flour, butter, hing water, salt water and red chilly powder and make it a dough. Heat oil in a shallow pan, reduce the flame when hot and squeeze the ribbon using the ribbon achu. Turn it to the other side. Fry both the sides till they become golden brown in colour. Remove from flame and spread it on kitchen towel to remove the excess oil. Store it in airtight container. 

Note: Do not add salt directly, it will make the ribbon pakoda to splutter and break.

Appam

This is one of the method I make and it turns out really good.

Ingredients:
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Maida flour - 1/2  cup
Rice flour - 1 cup
Jaggery - 2 cups
Coconut grated - 1 cups
Cardamom powder - from 7 to 8 nos
Ghee - 1 1/2 cups

Method:
In a vessel add warm water and jaggery. Keep stirring untill all the jaggery dissolves. Add all the flour one by one to the jaggery water and keep stirring continuously without forming any lumps.  Add the grated coconut and cardamom powder. Make a batter thicker than idly batter and it should be free flowing too.

It is always better to use Kuzhipaniyara maker to make appam so that it comes in full round shape and intakes less oil/ghee. If it is fried in oil use very less oil in a shallow and small pan. Use a small round laddle to pour the batter into the oil. Fry both the sides untill golden brown.

Sago Murukku for ICC contest

I am adding this recipe for the ICC contest by Srivalli for the month of March.

I normally make murukku with bengal gram and rice flour. The ingredient that is given is slightly different from what I normally make. But still, I added the extra ingredient to my regular murukku recipe. The extra ingredient is sago which is to be soaked in curd for about 2 hours (I got the bigger variety). My mom said, that instead of using it in the flour mixture grind the soaked sago so that it wont get struck while squeezing the murukku.


Ingredients used as given by Srivalli
Rice Flour  2 cups
Besan flour  1/2 cup
Fried gram flour - 1/2 cup
Sago - 1/2 cup
Salt to taste (rock salt 1 tbsp soaked in 1/4 cup of water)
Curd - 50 gms (half of half cup)(unsour curd)
Chile powder - 1/2 tsp or as per taste (I avoided it)

Ingredients I added:
Moong Dal flour - 1/2 cup
Jeera - 2 tbsp
Cardamom powder - 2 pinches
Butter (unsalted cooking butter) - 1/4 cup
Asafodeita - 1/2 inch piece(soaked in water)salt water, asafodeita water


Used Sundrop lite oil for frying.


Method to make Sago Murukku:

In a shallow basin, I added rice flour, bengal gram flour, fried gram flour, moong dal flour, Cardamom Powder,Jeera, Salt water, Asafodeita water, butter and blended all together. Then I added the ground Sago paste. Added a little more water to make the dough to a soft ball like. Using the Mullu Murukku achu I squeezed the murukkus in hot oil. When they were golden brown I removed from flame.

Usage of butter and the curd bought out crispy murukkus.