Tirunelveli Manoharam Recipe – Sweet Murukku Recipe – Manoharam Recipe

• Besan flour – 1 cup
• Rice flour – 1/2 cup
• Hot oil – 1 tbsp
• Ghee or soft butter – 2 tsp
• Water & Salt – as needed
• Cooking oil – to deep fry

For sugar syrup

• Grated jaggery – 1 cup
• Sugar – 2 tsp
• Water – 1/2 cup
• Dry ginger powder/sukku podi – 1 tsp
• Cardamom powder – If needed

• First lets prepare the murukku.For this, sieve besan and rice flour in a wide bowl.
• Add salt, hot oil and ghee to the flour. Mix well. Then add water little by little and make a dough. I made the dough very sticky as shown in the original recipe. So it was very easy to squeeze.
  
  
• Take the murukku press and use a single hole or three holed mould. Grease the press with oil. Fill the dough and set aside.
  
• Now heat oil to deep fry and drop a pinch of dough.If it rises to the top immediately, oil is hot. Now simmer the flame and squeeze the murukku either in a circular manner or as a straight line. Don’t worry about the shape because we are going to break them into pieces. Cook both the sides till bubbles cease. Do not fry in high flame, murukku will turn dark. So fry it patiently. Remove in a paper towel. Deep fry all the batches. Let it cool down completely.
  
• Take the powdered jaggery, sugar and water in a kadai. Mix & melt it. Strain the syrup if needed. Let the syrup roll boil and reaches soft ball consistency. To check this, take some syrup and pour it in a plate with water. Gather the syrup and try to make a soft ball. It is called soft ball consistency. Switch off the flame. Add dry ginger powder and mix well.
  
  
• Now break the cooled murukku into pieces ( make small pieces if you are making balls,else break them roughly) and add them to the jaggery syrup. Mix well. Make sure all murukku pieces are coated with the syrup. Make balls when it becomes warm enough Or Remove in a plate and let it cool. They look cluttered, remove them carefully and keep it in a plate. Serve & enjoy !
  
  

• The consistency of jaggery syrup is more important.It should be in soft ball consistency or even slight hard ball is fine else the syrup won’t coat well.
• Dry ginger powder adds a nice flavor. It aids digestion too. So don’t skip it.
• You can use soft butter instead of ghee.