Thengai Paal Murukku/Coconut Milk Murukku - Easy Diwali Recipes

Every Diwali we end up making Ribbon Pokkodam, thenkuzhal and mixture. This time I wanted to try something a little different. Every time we buy murukku from shops, I buy a packet of Thengai Paal murukku. I just love the mild flavour of coconut milk. While talking to one of my aunts who is an expert in making snacks, I got the recipe for this murukku. It comes out well each and every time and is big hit with my kids as it is mild and not spicy yet very flavorful. So if you are looking for a simple snack, then do give this a try.

What you’ll need

1. Rice flour – 1 cup
2. Urad Dal Flour – 1/8 cup
3. Cumin Seeds/Jeera – 1 tsp
4. Thick Coconut Milk – ¼ to ½ cup
5. Butter – 1 tbsp
6. Salt to taste
7. Oil to deep fry

Method

1. In a wide bowl, take the rice flour, urad dal flour, cumin seeds, salt and mix well.
2. Next add the butter and mix it well.
3. Add the coconut milk little at a time and mix well to make a soft and smooth dough, not too lose and not too tight.
4. Heat oil for deep frying, take a big orange sized ball of the dough and put it in the murukku press.
5. Once the oil is hot, Squeeze into small or big murukku, directly in the oil. Take care while squeezing.
6. Fry until on medium heat until all the bubbles stop.
7. Drain on to a tissue paper.
8. Tasty and flavorful thengai paal murukku is ready.

Note:

I used up only about ¼ cup of coconut milk, as my rice flour was freshly made at home and it was kind of wet (eera podi), if you are using store bought flour you may have to use up the ½ cup fully.

Badusha/Balushahi

My blog has been lying dormant for quite sometime. Diwali, the festival of lights is knocking at our doors. Now, Diwali calls for a couple of posts. So I finally, started my Diwali preparations today. I started out by making this delicious sweet – Badusha. These are small doughnut shaped sweets, crisp and coated with sugar on the outside and juicy on the inside.

I have grown up seeing my grandfather, religiously prepare these, for almost every Diwali. He was an expert in making these. My grandmother and mother were his so-called assistants. He would do the major work of kneading the dough and take help from them to shape the badushas. I still remember him frying the badushas in large steel “thalam”/ “thambalam” so that all badushas got the same amount of heat and fried well. He used Vanaspati/dalda to prepare them. With changing times my mother has slightly altered the recipe and uses ghee instead.

Let us move on the recipe

Makes – 30 medium sized badushas

What you’ll need

1. All Purpose Flour/Maida – 4 cup
2. Ghee – ¾ cup
3. Curd – 8 tbsp
4. Salt – a pinch
5. Cooking Soda – 1 tsp
6. Oil for deep frying

For the sugar syrup

1. Sugar – 2 cup
2. Rose Essence – few drops or Powdered Cardamom – 1 tsp

Method

1. In a wide vessel, add ghee and cooking soda and rub it very well with your finger so as to mix the soda well with the ghee.
2. To this add the curd and mix well.
3. Now sprinkle the maida little at time and bring it together into a dough.
4. Add a little water and make into a smooth dough. Do not apply too much pressure while kneading.
5. Cover and rest it for at least 30 minutes.
6. Now, pinch out small lemon sized balls, roll into smooth ball, flatten slightly with your palm and make an indent with your thumb in the centre.
7. Repeat this with the rest of the dough
8. In the meanwhile, heat oil for deep frying in a kadai. Once the oil has heated up, (test by adding a tiny piece of dough, it should come up immediately), turn off the heat.
9. Slide in 3 to 4 pieces of the shaped dough into the oil and let it cook in the pre-heated oil for a while.
10. Now, turn the stove on, and cook on low heat, by flipping and turning the badhushas, until they have turned a nice golden brown, or until the sound stops.
11. Drain into a tissue paper.
12. Simultaneously prepare the sugar syrup, heat another kadai, add the sugar and water enough to submerge the sugar. Heat it until one string consistency and remove from heat.
13. Add the rose essence or cardamom powder mix well.
14. Soak the first batch of badhushas in the syrup until the next batch is ready.
15. Remove the first batch from the syrup and line them up in a wide plate.
16. Repeat the above until all the badushas are fried and dipped in sugar syrup.
17. Now, keep the remaining sugar syrup on heat again and keep stirring, till it turns into a white saucy liquid.
18. Remove from heat, and dip all the badushas in this white crystal sugar, place them on a wide plate and let them cool for at least a couple of hours.

Delicious badushas are ready.

Notes:

1. The last step of dipping the badhushas again in the crystal sugar, is optional, if you like your badhuha like the store bought ones, stop at step 15. But my grandfather used to proceed and make this way and we like it this way.
2. Take care not to add too much water while kneading, use as little as possible. Also, do not knead like chappati dough giving a lot of pressure.