Crispy savoury marukku is a popular South Indian snack that has made its way to every Malaysians household.



 

What is Murukku?

Murukku is made of a mixture of besan flour (chick pea flour) or dhal flour, together with either tapioca flour (or rice flour), mix with some spices to make a soft dough.

The dough is then press through a murukku maker or murukku press straight into hot oil in a pan.

It is our favourite Indian snacks to munch when watching television.
Crispy savoury snacks originally from South India comes in many shapes, colours and flavours.



Murukku press comes with few interchangeable discs to make your favourite murukku like, Bombay mix for example or flat shape murukku like fettucine.

How to make murukku?

The full recipe and instruction can be found at the end of this post.

Preparation work

Before we dive into making murukku, we have to prepare few tasks in advance.
1. to pan fry and grind ajwan seeds
2. to soak and pound dried shrimps till fine mess.
3. to wash and pat dry curry leaves to avoid burn by hot oil (see the splatter in my video~ it is shocking!!)


Pan fry ajwan seeds then ground to powder using pestle and mortar.



Soaked dried shrimps and pound to pulp.

Mixing dry and wet ingredients into the mixing bowl.

Add the two types of flour; besan flour and tapioca flour, add pounded dried shrimps, freshly ground ajwan seeds, sesame seeds, sugar and salt.

You can add chilli powder at this stage.




Add margarine and coconut milk.

Mixing murukku dough

It is easier to mix using hand than spatula.

and if the murukku dough is a little on the 'dry' side, add water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough is soft (I would say more like bread dough kind of soft!)

Last few steps prior to frying murukku

Heat up oil in a pot or wok.



Deep fry curry leaves until crunchy.
Be careful the hot oil will spit if the leaves aren't properly dry.

Watch at 06:30 minute on my video!!
I almost ruin my camera.



Fry dried chillies.

Last and final steps in murukku making

Place dough into murukku maker.


Use the spindle to push the dough out of the mould into hot oil.


Use scissor to cut the stringy bit.




Finally, you have about 600g of golden fried, crispy and crunchy murukku.

Tips on making murukku.

Tip no 1 :

When mixing the dough make sure that the murukku dough is soft, just as soft bread dough.
If the dough is on the 'dry' side, the murukku strand might easily break when pushing the dough out of the murukku maker or when we are frying.



This is how the dry dough murukku would look like.
It has ridges and easily broke into small pieces when frying.

Nice perfect soft murukku dough will yield a smooth strand, hence less oily murukku.

Tip no 2

Make sure that the oil is hot enough when frying.
This is a little tricky and you have to make quick judgement, as to avoid murukku turning brown to almost burnt!
Low heat will result in murukku absorbing oil, hence will result in oily murukku.

 

How to keep marukku?

Let the murukku cool down before keepin them in an air tight container.

How long can I keep murukku for?

Murukku is best eaten within a month.
2 months may be a little bit too long as they may turn rancid (because of the oil).

Where to get murukku maker or murukku press?

You can find this murukku maker or murukku press in your nearest Indian grocer, on e-bay or on Amazon.

Other finger food that you may wish to try!

Golden fried wontons
Malaysian beef curry puff
Feta cheese sticks

Video on How to make Murukku

I would like to thank my school mate for sharing this wonderful recipe.
Thank you CNI <3