Thenkuzhal Recipe

This one's out of the ordinary.. a South-Indian savory, Thenkuzhal, a kind of murukku, that is so crunchy and addictive that noone can eat just one for sure! This one is usually done on special occasions and festivals at home and the very smell of it deep frying in the pan can tempt anyone to give up all their i-eat-only-healthy -food attitude and get down to work! Ladies and gentleman... presenting to u the Thenkuzhal Recipe...

Thenkuzhal Recipe

Ingredients
Rice - two cups
Urud dal - 1/4 cup
Jeera - 2 tsp
Butter - 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Asafoetida


Method
Wash the rice well for few minutes and dry it out on a towel under the fan.
Fry the urud dal and make it into a fine powder.
Grind the rice into a fine powder once its dry.
Mix the rice flour and the urud dal powder, jeera, butter, asafoetida and salt.
Add water into the mixture slowly and make it into a semi-solid dough.
Heat oil in a pan for deep-frying.
Fill a thenguzhal achchu (a presser with 3 holes) and press the thenguzhals into the hot oil.
Remove when it turns light brown.


You can add a little toor dal along with the urud dal, but make sure the total quantity of both together doesnt go more than 1/4 cup.
You may also add 1/4 tsp chilli powder to make it more spicy.
Also, you can use store-bought rice flour instead of using fresh ground raw rice, but the latter gives a more authentic taste than using the ready-made flour.