Sago Murukku

Sago murukku was the challenge given to members of Indian Cooking Challenge way back in March, to be posted by the 15th of April. Though I had two recipes in one cookbook, I never had attempted until Srivalli lured me by posting the challenge.

I tried the recipe given by her, which is the same as it appears below. But all plans to post were not to be. I travelled to India and disappeared from blogsphere for a while. Now that I am back, I wanted to post the recipe though very overdue.

Ingredients:

Rice Flour 2 cups
Gram flour 1/2 cup
Fried gram flour - 1/2 cup
Sago pearls - 1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Curd - 50 gms (half of half cup)
Chili powder - 1/2 tsp or as per taste

Special Utensil :
Muruku Achu

Method to prepare:
Soak Sago in butter milk for 3 hours. Ensure that you soak it enough; otherwise you may risk having the sago burst.
Mix all the flours together.

Heat 50 gms oil, mix to the flour along with salt and chili powder.

Then add the soaked sago slowly and knead to a dough, the consistency should be easy to be pressed through the murukku press.
Heat oil for deep frying.

Place a small portion of the dough in the muruku achu.

When the oil is hot, press down directly in the oil as murukus.
Cook on medium flame to ensure the muruku is fried well.

Remove from oil with a slotted ladle and place on absorbent tissues to remove excess oil.

A very tasty, somewhat tangy (because of the buttermilk) murukku is ready to enjoy.

Notes:
Ensure sago soaks in buttermilk well and is soft or else it will burst when you press it down in hot oil.
Cook on medium to ensure even cooking.
I powdered the sago prior to mixing to the buttermilk, just enough to form a dough, let it stand for sometime and added the rest of the flours and the hot oil. I did not have any bursting or cracking.

This recipe resulted in somewhat hard murukkus to my liking. I usually add more butter or fat to the dough than given in this recipe. Nonetheless it tasted good and I am determined to try them again sometime later.

The recipe book I mentioned does not have the gram flour in the recipe. The author has used only rice flour and sago pearls. That might be also an interesting option.