Today’s Navarathri food festival recipe is my mother’s recipe for crispy and crunchy murukku. This is a delicious snack and it is usually difficult to stop eating the entire bowl, after tasting one or two pieces.

Murukku

Time taken: 30 – 40 mins

Serves 10

Ingredients:

• Chickpea flour – ¼ cup
• Steamed wheat flour – ¾ cup
• Coconut – 2 tbsp, freshly scraped
• Pepper – ¼ tsp
• Salt – ¼ tsp
• Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
• Sesame seeds – 1 tsp
• Water – 1 cup
• Low fat oil, for deep-frying

Method:

1. Blend 2 tbsp freshly scraped coconut with 1 cup water and extract a cup of coconut milk.
2. In a saucepan, heat the coconut milk, adding the salt, pepper and turmeric powder to the pan.
3. When the milk boils, remove from heat and briefly cool the milk for a few seconds.
4. In a bowl, mix the chickpea flour and the steamed wheat flour.
5. Stir in the boiled, spiced coconut milk into the bowl of flour mix and make the ‘murukku’ dough.
6. Fold in the sesame seeds into the dough mix.
7. Heat some low-fat oil in a pan.
8. Scoop some of the dough into the murukku mold and squeeze out the dough through the mold over the pan with the oil. Once the noodle-like ‘murukku’ is cooked and golden brown on all sides, remove from pan and transfer to a tray lined with grease absorbing paper.
9. Repeat the process until all the dough is squeezed out of the mold and fried.
10. Serve immediately or store in air-tight container to prevent the ‘murukku’ from becoming mushy and to retain its crispiness.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.