Manapparai Murukku/Tamil Nadu Special Manapparai Murukku

Manapparai Murukku, its one of the popular deep fried snacks which is quite famous for its unique taste in Tamil Nadu. Murukku is a quite famous snacks you can find anywhere in South India especially in Tamil Nadu. But this Manapparai murukku is the best among the varieties of murukkus available anywhere. Murukku business is a cottage affair in Manaparai,like Tirunelveli halwa, Kancheepuram idli these murukkus are well known for its nativity. Actually this murukku was sold to the train passengers through refreshment stall at the Manapparai railway station earlier in 20th century. This murukku is prepared simply with rice flour, flavoured with sesame seeds, ajwain seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida powder which gives a wonderful flavor to this deep fried snacks. The speciality of this murukkus is, they are deep fried twice to get a golden colour thus you can differentiate easily with the other murukkus from the original Manapparai murukku.

Manapparai and its murukkus are inseparable and the traditional way of making this murukku belongs to the last century. Whoever hails from Tamilnadu know very well about this famous murukku and today am posting my small bite sized crispy Manapparai murukkus i prepared specially for this month's Indian Cooking Challenge,a monthly event where we cook dishes from various regions of India.For this month's challenge, Srivalli suggested us this popular Tamil Nadu's Manapparai murukku. Actually the original recipe goes for just rice flour,since i had a doubt i called my mom to check with her, but she insisted me to add roasted urad dal powder, thank god i called her else my murukkus would have went wrong. However the combination of rice flour and roasted urad dal worked wonder. Trust me, these murukkus are dangerously addictive and none cannot stop just with one.

2cups Rice flour

1/2cup Roasted Urad Dal Flour

1/2tsp Cumin seeds

1tbsp Sesame seeds

1tbsp Butter

1/4tsp Asafoetida powder

1/4tsp Ajwain seeds

Salt

Water as per need

Oil for deepfrying

Take both flours, cumin seeds, sesame seeds,asafoetida powder, ajwain seeds,butter, salt in a large bowl, slowly add water and turn everything as a stiff dough.

Heat the oil in medium flame, drop a pinch of dough to check the oil.

Take the murukku press, use the star nozzle.

Now take enough amount of the dough and press as small sized murukkus.

Drop them to the hot oil, cook on both sides until they turns bit crisp( dont fry them completely)

Remove them, drain the oil with a paper towel and keep aside, fry the remaining dough as murukkus.

Now drop again the already fried murukku to the oil, fry until they turns golden brown.

Drain again the excess of oil.

Arrange the murukkus in air tightened box.

Munch them with a cup of coffee for your evening snacks.