Dinner with Rukmini
Browse all of the recipes in Rukmini Iyer’s cookbooks by ingredient.
Murukku
Rukmini Iyer's beautifully crisp murukku are made using a mix of chickpea and rice flours and are the perfect snack to serve for Diwali or other special occasions.
From the book
India Express: Simple and Delicious Recipes for Every Day
75 recipes inspired by the vibrant flavours of South India and Bengal
Speedy and fuss-free recipes for maximum flavour in return for minimum effort
Trademark traybakes, as well as stir-fries, snacks, weeknight curries, and simple desserts
Introduction
These are one of my dad’s favourite snacks, and my grandmother would make them for him (as part of a wider selection) every birthday. It’s a really simple dough of rice and gram flour, fried until crisp. The only slightly technical aspect is the gadget used to press the dough out into shapes in the hot oil – I bought a specific murukku or sev press, which are readily available online, but if you have a cookie press or cylindrical icing set with a star-shaped nozzle, that would work well too.
Ingredients
| 160g | rice flour |
| 140g | gram (chickpea) flour |
| 150ml | cold water |
| ½ tsp | sea salt flakes |
| ¼ tsp | mild chilli powder |
| ¼ tsp | bicarbonate of soda |
| 1 litre | vegetable oil, for deep-frying |
Method
Tip the rice flour, gram flour, salt, chilli powder and bicarb into a large bowl. Slowly add the cold water and stir together to form a stiff dough.
When you’re ready to fry, pour the oil into a large saucepan no more than half full. Heat until it reaches 180C, or until a cube of bread dropped in sizzles and turns golden within 30 seconds.
Break off sections of the dough and put them in your murukku/cookie press fitted with a star-shaped attachment. Very carefully press out two to three circles of dough straight into the hot oil – just do one or two to start with to get the feel of it; you don’t want to overcrowd the pan.
Fry the murukku for 2–3 minutes until golden brown and crisp. Use a large slotted spoon to transfer them to a plate lined with kitchen paper and continue until you’ve used up the dough.
These are lovely hot or cold. Anything you don’t eat immediately can be cooled to room temperature and stored in an airtight tin for a week.
