MURUKULU

 Murukulu, is a traditional snack made with rice flour. They are spicy, crispy deep-fried snack made with rice flour and dry spices. And usually these are flavored with garlic, basic spices, and sesame seeds. And these Murukulu are a perfect accompaniment with hot tea and the right option for a travel time snack. 

 Murukulu are specially made for festivals like Krishnashtami, Tholi Ekadasi and Makara Sankranti. In South India, rice plays a major role in our diets and cuisine. Hence, no festive meal or festive treats are complete where rice isn’t used. Many of south Indian festive savory treats like Murukulu, chegodilu, garelu, sakinalu, and sweet treats like thalikalu, bellam kudumulu, pootharekulu, pala padiyam, etc. The list just goes on and on when it comes to making innovative and delicious treats using rice/rice flour as the base ingredient. 

What the Murukku??

 Murukulu, the crispy studded edges around the snack make it more intriguing and inviting that even adults cannot resist with one. And what makes the shape and texture of the murukku distinctive is the kind of shaped disc we are using in a murukku maker.

Murukku maker comes with different shaped disc plates, which allow you to create different shapes or thicknesses. Place the desired disc template in the cylinder and add the murukku dough to it. And screw the cylinder with the long rotating handle lid and turn the handle down. Now rotate the murukku maker in concentric circles to shape into Murukku just like below in the picture. So to attain the crispy studded edges on the murukku like in the picture below, we need to use the disc with star shaped hole in the center. 

My nostalgia with Murukulu!!

 Growing up, amma made sure that we always had containers of homemade snacks. And I hardly remember ever buying chips or other store bought snacks. Usually amma used to make the snacks like murukulu, chegodilu, atukula chudwa, pelala chudwa on weekends. Hence, I used to watch amma making these delicious snacks, and gobble up few chit chatting with Amma sitting on the kitchen counter. Hence, I managed to learn few traditional recipes watching my Amma, Nanamma, Ammamma and hoping to learn a few more from her.

What all ingredients do we need?

The base ingredients we need to make murukulu are rice flour, chili powder, salt, sesame seeds, cumin seeds, carom seeds, and water. First we bring the water to a rolling boil, and we add the rice flour to the boiling water, which helps in steaming the flour. This step helps in making the dough more pliable, then we knead the dough and divide it into smaller portions. And using a small amount of rested dough, we place them in a muruku maker with star shaped disc, and shape them into concentric rings. I have learned this method from my mother and it results in crispy chegodilu every single time.

In Telangana, some people add onion, garlic, and chili paste to the dough. And in our family recipe, it doesn’t contain any garlic or onion. Murukulu is one such versatile snack that we can customize to our taste preference.

What rice flour can we use for this recipe?

Any rice flour, store-bought or homemade anything will work for this recipe. You can also make rice flour at home, just grind some rice in a blender and use a fine sieve to get smooth rice flour. And usually back at home, my Amma used to get our rice flour milled locally, and we use DODDU BIYYAM for these kind of rice flour based snacks. 

Doddu biyyam or coarse whole rice are distributed as part of PDS or ration rice in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The snacks made using this rice flour yields utterly crispy and delicious snacks. But, you can use store-bought rice flour and it works just fine. Also, feel free to substitute the white rice flour with brown rice flour and red rice flour. 

How does a ideal Muruku must taste like ?

As every family has their own variation of murukulu, the ideal consistency of muruku must be crispy yet not hard, shouldn’t be soft at all and with every bite you should get the even crunch.

Any other names and varieties of murukulu?

In Maharashtra and remaining Northern part of India, these murukulu are known by Chakli, Chakna.

Some tips and suggestions to follow to make perfect murukulu

1. Adding the rice flour to boiling water helps in steaming the flour, which helps in making the dough more smooth, pliable and less cracks.
2. If you are making in large quantity please work with smaller portions and keep the dough covered at all the times. Else it tends to turn dry.
3. Take small portion into a separate bowl, add water little by little and knead until smooth and pliable. 
4. For extra flavor and spice add onion and garlic paste. It lends a beautiful spicy flavor.
5. You can modify the sesame seeds quantity according to your taste preference.
6. Do not overcrowd the pan with too many murukulu at a time, fry them on medium flame in small batches for uniform cooking. Else they’ll turn brown and taste burnt.
7. When you add the raw murukulu into hot oil, you will notice the sizzling and bubbles. As they cook, the bubbles and sizzling start to disappear gradually. That’s when you can remove the murukulu from the pan.
8. Just when the chegodilu murukulu out of oil, they will be soft when they’re still hot. Check the consistency when the murukulu are completely cool down.

Checkout more festive food treats from my blog.

Chegodilu

Odappalu

Bebbari pappu garelu

Penilu

Chakralu

Shakkarpara

Motichoor laddu

Palm jaggery whole wheat biscuits

 If you’ve tried this recipe and loved it, I’d love to hear your feedback by tagging your photo and share it with #mycurryveda on Instagram @mycurryveda  or on Facebook . Also follow @taste.of.telangana on Instagram for more traditional recipes, culture and stories.