Murukku Recipe : My Bollywood Story

I remember when I was 5 and my family and I was staying in Chai Leng Park, Butterworth, Penang at that time.

My neighbour was Mr. Joseph Ananda Pillai. We called him Mr J upon his personal request. Mr J had a wife, Mrs J who was a very sweet, soft spoken, curry-smelling woman and they had a son, Ramesh. Ramesh and I went to the same kindergarden and I was his girlfriend and he was my boyfriend.

I remember sending him a picture of myself that I drew with my crayon and he would reciprocate my effort with a picture of himself holding a ball in his hand. And when it was Deepavali time, I would sneaked into Mrs J's kitchen and helped her with her Deepavali's preparation. She would make hundreds of types of Deepavali cookies but the one that I can never forget is her Chakkli Murukku (Rice Murukku). The aroma of fried murukku filled the air and when it was time for me to go home, she would fill up a bag of murukku for me to take home.

One Deepavali, she even bought me a deep red saree and had my hair in a bun before she put some white sweet-smelling flowers in my hair. Ramesh and I wore a matching outfit and at that time I was convinced that I will marry Ramesh and the prospect of making capathi and murukku for the rest of my life somehow thrilled me.

I guess being 1/4 Punjabi myself, I was more attracted to ermmm....Indian boys than Malay or Chinese boys.

Then one day I overheard Mr J telling my Dad that they will be moving to Ipoh after the school break.

I was devastated.

The day they moved out of the house, Mrs J gave me her bracelets (that I adored so much) and kissed me and tell me that she will always remember me.

Ramesh kissed me on my cheek. We hugged and I cried my eyeballs out that night :)

So since Deepavali is just around the corner, this is for you Mrs J, my murukku mother hehehehe.

Chakli Murukku

Ingredients

4 cups Raw rice

Half cup White gram

25 gms White sesame seeds

25 gms Cumin seeds

2 tablespoons Asafetida powder

100 gms Butter Table salt - to taste

Oil - for fryingMethod

Wash and clean the rice well. Let it out to dry and once it has dried completely, powder it nicely.
Fry the gram orange and powder it and keep it aside.

Mix the powdered rice, powdered gram, white sesame seeds, cumin seeds, asafetida powder, butter and salt together, without adding water. Take a little of this mixture, add water to it to get a dough like consistency. Now take this dough and twist it into circular shapes of the murukku (chakkli).

Heat oil in a pan. Test how hot it is by dropping a pinch of dough into it - if it sinks, the oil hasn't become hot enough. If the dough springs to the top with bubbles all around it, then the oil is just ready.

Drop in the murukku gently into the hot oil and fry golden brown. Keep flipping the sides till the murukku is done.

Store in an air tight container.

Had a friend bought me a saree when she was in India last year. I never know how to tie a saree though so I had the saree be made into a nice baju kurung.

Now, anyone knows how to make ladu?