Chakli/Murukku/Chakkuli

CHAKLI- Deep fried Indian savory snack. 

It is on this auspicious day of Gowri Habba(festival) and Ganesha Chaturthy when family members get together and is a celebration all over India. Bringing home the sacred idols, welcoming it with aarathi, elaborate decorations, and a never ending cooking of variety of food are all the signs of festive vibes. What a joy to treat yourself with variety of food that is not only tasty, but loaded with nutrition and over loaded with love.

These festivals have rich and subtle meaning to convey, and the values are passed on from one generation to the next. Though not able to take it to that level of authentic worshipping like what my parents and grandparents do, we are definite incarnate of them all, which enables to follow the path they laid for us. Staying miles away from home country doesn’t mean to give up values incarnated in us from ages, but made the celebration simple and elegant.

Coming to the recipe, this yummy, crunchy savory snack is not only restricted to festivities. It can be served as tea time snack or something to munch on while watching your favorite movie.  Chakli mould is absolutely necessary for making this snack, without which it is not possible to shape the chakli (Picture attached below for better understanding). But smile, you can still make roundels with hole in the centre (kodubale) and follow the same procedure and then enjoy. The secret key for perfect chakli is to use roasted chana powder don’t substitute with gram flour.

Ingredients;

2 cups rice flour

½ cup roasted chana powder (kadale)

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 ½ tsp chili powder

2 tsp sesame seeds (optional)

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Directions:

Step 1: Make nice powder of roasted chana using mixer/food processor, set aside. Heat a frying pan, add cumin, sesame, quick stir. Add rice and chana flour and roast it in medium low for 4 to 5 minutes or until aromatic.

Step 2: Mean while boil water in another pan. Transfer the roasted flour to large mixing bowl, add salt and chili powder, mix thoroughly. Add 1 ½ cups boiling water and mix with ladle, and allow it to cool enough to work with bare hands.

Step 3: Knead well to form firm dough, like chapathy dough. Add warm water if required, cover and let it rest for 5 minutes. Divide it into 4 equal parts, knead to give a shape that fits the mold. Heat oil in a wok for deep frying. Fill the mold and start pressing on to butter paper to give them spiral shape as shown below.

Step 4:  Check the oil by dropping a small piece, it should rise to the top. Now the oil is ready to fry, keep it in medium-medium and carefully drop the pressed chaklis one by one. Flip over after a minute and fry the other side until crisp and golden brown, it takes 3 to 4 minutes.

Step 5: Transfer them on to paper towel to drain excess oil. Repeat the same for remaining batches and after it is completely cooled store them in air tight container jar.

Chakli Mould

Note:

Don’t over fry it burns the chaklis.

Bring water to rolling boil.