Mullu Thenkuzhal

This snack is called Mullu Thenkuzhal or Mullu Murukku (Chakri) in our homes. This is the one of the common varieties of the snacks prepared during Krishna Jayanthi and Deepavali. 

We like this snack a lot and decided to try our hand this Deepavali. The results were pretty satisfactory. We got the recipe from my mother. 

Ingredients

• Roasted Rice Flour – 3 cups
• Roasted Moong Dal Flour – ½ Cup
• Salt – to taste
• Chilly Powder –to taste
• Cumin seeds – 1 or 2 tea spoons
• Butter – 1 to 2 Table spoons
• Oil – for frying

 Method:

• Lightly roast the Moong Dal. Let it cool and grind it to very fine powder. Use a sieve to remove bigger particles.
•  Mix the Roasted rice flour and the roasted moong dal floor in a bowl along with salt, chilly powder and cumin seeds
• Add the butter little by little to the mixture. Knead the butter into the flour mix
• Slowly add water to the mixture, continuously kneading the flour until it fuses into a thick mass
• Ensure that the dough is not too hard or too watery. You should be able to easily press this dough using a thenkuzhal press (achu). If it is too hard, sprinkle some water and knead the dough. If too watery, add some flour.
• Let the dough stand for a few minutes.
•  Heat oil in a kadai. You can test the oil temperature by putting a small piece of the dough in the oil. The dough should immediately rise up and be fried.
• Once the oil is heated, use the thenkuzhal press to slowly press the dough. Move the press in a circular motion so that the dough is pressed into an even shape.
• Allow the dough to fry for a few minutes, until it is light brown in color
• Using a ladle, pick up the fried thenkuzhal from oil and place on a tissue or strainer to strain the oil.

Notes:

While this is a very easy dish to prepare, you would need the Thenkuzhal Press (Achu) for making this.Traditionally, this is a metal press. Nowadays we get new variants in plastic too. We used a plastic Achu with decent result. But personally, the metal one is always god and easy to use.