murukulu or jantikalu recipe

1. Clean and dry roast ¼ cup urad dal/ minapappu on a medium flame. I do not suggest skipping the roasting part as it may make murukulu chewy after a day or two. Refer the note in the recipe card for details on quantity of urad dal flour.

2. When they turn lightly golden, off the heat. Do not over roast.

3. Cool and add to a blender.

4. Powder to a fine flour.

5. Add 1 cup rice flour, 2 tbsp urad dal flour, ajwain (omam/ vammu), sesame seeds and salt. I did not have sesame seeds so skipped.

6. Mix everything well. Add hot oil. Mix everything well.

7. Pour water little by little and knead the flour to make smooth non sticky dough.

8. If the dough is sticky and soggy, it will absorb lot of oil while frying. If very dry then murukku / murukulu will break while making them.

9. Grease the mould, fit the star muruku plate. Stuff the dough inside. Keep it ready.

10. Slowly begin to press the mould to release the dough and make a spiral. A moist cloth, foil or butter papper can be used to place the murukku. I prefer to use small cuts of butter paper for convenience, as it is easy to lift each one and fry.

11. If you are a beginner, you can also make these on steel spatulas. A holed spatula works better.

12. Place them when the oil is hot enough. To check if the oil is hot, drop a tiny flat piece of dough in the oil, it floats if the oil is ready. The muruku will come out from the spatula when it is getting fried.

13. If made on a cloth or foil, you can lift them gently and drop in hot oil. Fry on a medium flame and keep stirring for even frying. Fry until golden. Bubbles begin to reduce when fried well. If not fried well, they will turn chewy after 1 to 2 days, so make sure to fry evenly on a medium flame.

14. Drain them on a kitchen tissue. Store them in a air tight stainless steel or glass jar.

15. The same dough is used to make jantikalu. They are made with large holed sev plate or jantikalu plate. These are fairly easy and can make them directly in the hot oil.  Fry until golden stirring often. Drain on a kitchen tissue