Murukku

I has been long since I made any snacks at home. Somehow deep frying leaves a guilty feeling. But this week I had some time to spare and few excuses to make some snacks. How hard is it to find excuses, right? Its summer and we have started excising outside, my old friend complimented that I lost some weight, I am stressed I need to relax, we should celebrate the end of a long tiring week. Well, how many more you want :-) I made murukku, sev and ribbon pakora. So here is it is:



 Indian coffee, with home made snacks..

Here is the recipe for murukku. I used to make the ribbon pakoda with the same murukku mix until I saw the ones with beautiful color at Saffron hut. It came out very well too.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup rice flour

2. 1 tsp urad dal

3. 1/2 tbsp butter - at room temperature

4. 1 tsp dalia flour

5. 1/2 tsp cumin seeds

6. 1/2 tsp sesame sees

7. 1/2 tsp chilli powder (or more)

8. Salt to taste

9. Oil for frying

Method:

Roast urad dal and grind it into fine powder with dalia and sift it. Mix all ingredients together adding water little by little. You know the rest - choose your attachment (size and shape of your murukku) and using murukku maker press your murukku directly into hot oil. I use a deep fryer for fying. On stove top make sure you maintain the temperature. Also the temperature and frying time differs based on how thick or thin the murukku is. I made the thin ones this time (thicker than sev so that the cumin and sesame seeds can come through). These are my tools of trade.

I also made these thick ones last Diwali. Same recipe, just a different attachment. I squeeze my murukku patterns on the frying spatula itself. Then slowing dip the spatula and wait for the murukku to leave the spatula. It you find it sticking to the spatula, use another spatula to separate it. This is much easier than squeezing than the plastic paper and transferring it to oil carefully without the hot oil splashing on you. In fact I go on a assembly line mode with two spatulas, while one is frying the other will be ready to go ;-)

Adai - dosa

I recently stumbled upon Saffron Hut's - 16 Bean Adai. In my constant quest for cooking healthy food, I found this really interesting. While I was disappointed when I couldn't find it in my recent trip to the grocery store, I was still determined to make Adai. Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, this was not one of my favorites growing up. So I never made it myself.  So I searched a few blogs for the measurements of the dals for this recipe, before asking my mom. All the ones I browsed had rice in a good proportion while the one that my mom gave had very less rice. So my mom wins, again... Here is how I made it.

Ingredients:

1 cup channa dal
1/2 cup moong dal
1/4 cup toor dal
1/4 cup urad dal
Half of 1/4th cup rice
4-5 red chillies
1/4 tsp hing
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 inch piece of ginger - grated
Salt

Method:

So all the dals, rice and red chillies together for about 2-4 hours. Then grind it along with water, hing and salt. You  shouldn't grind this into smoothly, it should be coarse. Then add the cumin seeds and grated ginger. My mom said since it is all dals and may be a little hard on some tummies, the cumin and ginger should help. The batter is ready for dosa. Unlike regular dosa, you soak for less time and no time needed for fermenting. So I guess this is the one if you more time than rava dosa and less time than regular dosa, more importantly if you are looking for something healthy and wholesome.

Adai with onion chutney applied inside and allam (ginger) pachadi on the side.

I will still make the 16 bean adai once I find the beans.. soon.