Mostly we all make thenkuzhal murukku for diwali or some special occasions. I love this murukku since my childhood days. I used to do all the pre preparatory works for making homemade murukku maavu like buying rice and urad dal, grinding it in flour mill, sieving etc. I sit with my mom & aachi when they make this for diwali especially to get the last batch of murukku. My mom make a batch of half cooked murukku ( we call it “arai vekkaadu” in tamil) for me. I love this murukku more than the crispy ones. I eat it hot immediately after taking out from the oil.
Even today, my MIL make this specially for me. How sweet !!. I saw so many thenkuzhal recipes in blogosphere with different proportions of rice and urad dal. I wanted to share my version too. Hope this post helps beginners. Please go through the Notes section too. Now coming to my version with step by step pictures and video.
“””PLEASE HAVE A LOOK AT THE “POINTS TO REMEMBER” BEFORE STARTING..”””
Thenkuzhal murukku
White thenkuzhal murukku for Diwali !
Cuisine:Indian
Category:Snacks
Serves:25 nos
Prep time:15 Minutes
Cook time:20 Minutes
Total time:35 Minutes
INGREDIENTS
1 cup – 250ml
Raw rice/Maavu arisi – 5 cups
Round urad dal – 3/4 cup
Fried gram dal/Pottukadalai – 1/4 cup
Butter – 4-5 tbsp (1/4 cup)
Asafetida / hing – 1/2 tsp
Jeera / cumin seeds or Black sesame seeds – 2 tbsp
Salt & water – As needed.
Cooking oil – for deep frying.
For small quantity : 1 cup = 250ml
Rice flour – 1 cup ( Storebought dry rice flour)
Roasted urad dal flour – 2 tbsp
Melted Butter – 1 tbsp
Hot oil – 1/2 tbsp
Hing – 2 pinches
Cumin seeds or sesame seeds – 1 tsp
Salt & water – as needed
Cooking oil – to deep fry
METHOD
Heat a kadai and dry roast urad dal slightly without changing its colour. Roast till nice aroma comes from urad dal. Switch off the flame and add the fried gram dal. Now mix the rice, roasted urad dal and fried gram dal. Grind in flour mill or powder it in mixie. If you use mixie to grind the mixture, please don’t forget to sieve the flour. Flour should be very fine in texture. This is called “murukku maavu”. If you have store bought readymade murukku maavu, you can use it. OR you can use store bought dry rice flour and make urad dal flour at home.
Melt butter and set aside. You can add soft butter at room temperature as well.
To this murukku maavu, add salt, melted butter, hot oil, hing, jeera or sesame seeds and water to make a non sticky dough. Take the murukku press and mould with one whole. Fill the dough and set aside..
Heat the oil in a broad kadai and and press the murukku in circular motion directly in oil or press the murukku in a polythene sheet or in the back of ladle separately and then drop in hot oil. This way you get a nice shape. If the string gets cut while pressing, either urad dal flour is less or water is less. So add 1 tsp more urad dal flour and drizzle some water, mix well and try it. After you press the murukku , please stand a few feet away from the kadai. Sometimes, very rarely murukku may burst like seedai . If it doesn’t burst, then proceed.
Cook for sometime. Flip and cook for some more time till the hiss sound and bubbles ceases. Do it in medium flame. Adjust the flame whenever needed. Remove and drain in a paper towel.. Store in an air tight container after it cools down.
Don’t forget to try the half cooked murukku in the last batch. For this, after you press the murukku in oil, just flip immediately and remove in 10 secs.. Eat it hot !!
White colored, crispy thenkuzhal is ready to enjoy !!
Note
When you make murukku in large quantities , make the dough in batches to avoid the dough from drying. Also cover the dough with a damp cloth or a lid while cooking murukku. This helps in getting white colored murukku for all the batches. Otherwise color may vary for the last batches.
If murukku breaks while pressing, there may be less water in the dough or urad dal flour is coarse. In that case, you can sprinkle some water to the dough and mix well OR add little hot oil and try pressing. It may come out well.
We have added fried gram dal and butter to get the crispness & white color . But usually fried gram dal is not added in thenkuzhal. Its purely optional.
Adding too much of butter makes the murukku look oily and becomes soggy very soon. Shelf life gets reduced.
Adding more urad dal flour or too much of roasting the urad dal results in dark colored murukku.So make sure u roast the urad dal without changing the color..
The murukku flour should be very fine in texture otherwise it may burst while cooking. So I always sieve the flour for safer side.
Use enough oil for deep frying. Add more oil after few batches if necessary.
Drop or press the murukku only when the oil becomes hot. U can find this by dropping a pinch of flour. It rises up quickly. This is the correct heating point. Do not let the oil fume. Always keep the flame in medium for even cooking.
Instead of pressing in oil directly, you can try pressing it in the back of ladle greased with oil or greased polythene sheets. This way you’ll get nice shape.
After cooking when you break the murukku, you can see a hole in the middle of the murukku like funnel. This denotes the murukku is perfect !!
Perfect thenkuzhal must form a hole. Can you see the hole in the broken murukku piece ? :))
Catch you all in my next post. Bye. Have a gr8 weekend.
Pictures are nice that you have given and they are really helpful in understanding the technique. I am going to use this thing with my fried bread. I think it will make great combination.
Thanks a lot will try to do it in the ratio given by you..I am a regular reader of your site..I have done many of your receipes..Recently tried your bottle guard dosa and it came very well..
hi chitra very beautiful and white thenkuzhal.if we use idiyappam flour for making this murukku what is the quantity of uraddal flour to be added for one cup of flour.i want to try.
Hi Chitra I tried the thenguzhal with store bought Idiyappam flour as per Ur recipe.taste was good.but thenguzhal broke into pieces didn't retain the shape.what could be the reason?
Thanks for ur recipe…when i press the murukku maavu in sheet it is getting broke..i tried adding more water and butter…still same thing happening…may i know why it is breaking?
Hi, idiyappam/ kozhukattai maavu is very soft and not dry like plain rice flour. So it doesn't work. I usually make it with store bought plain dry rice flour. I feel flour is the reason. Also murukku breaks if the urad dal flour is coarse. Please use store bought or homemade dry rice flour for this recipe.
Hi Sunitha, I buy Bagyalakshmi brand rice flour which has murukku picture on it. Yes if urad dal flour is homemade it's better to sieve twice in a fine mesh.
White thenkuzhal murukku for Diwali ! 
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