Crunchy Murukku

Every culinary adventure of mine always begins with my ocd need to learn to make something from scratch. After that, it is off to search the internet for recipes and methods so that I know roughly what is needed and what should be done. Today's Murukku adventure began when my young nephew began to take a liking to the snack. Due to my need to feed him wholesome things, I quickly put Murukku on my to make list.

After going through countless sites, I decided to start with a recipe I found on Sharmis Passions. I used the word started because due to various reasons (eg. missing ingredients or I forgot the steps etc) I usually will adapt the recipe to suit the situation as you can see later. Quickly jotting down what I need, I went to Mustafa to hunt for the ingredients. Despite searching high and low at the flour section, I could not find the Urad Dhal Flour which is actually the flour made from black gram. I asked someone for directions and she gave me a puzzled look. Finally I was directed to the dried goods section and I understood why she looked puzzled. I could only find packs labelled Urid Dhal Flour. So which one to buy?

Then I saw my answer... Premix Murukku flour!! Mustafa truly has everything!! Not only does it saves me from the need to buy many different ingredients and only using a little of each, it also saves me time to mix stuff together. The only thing is, the taste may not be satisfactory and you may need to add additional spices and salt to it. I added 1 tbs whole sesame seeds, 1 tsp of cumin seeds and half a tsp of curry powder to mine. My butter was melted coz I forgot the instructions and thought it had to be melted but it worked the same. You will also need a Murukku press for this. I bought mine at Little India for S$14.90.

How to make Murukku

2 cups Murukku Flour
2 tbs Melted Butter
1 tbs Sesame Seeds
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Curry Powder
Suitable amount of Water to make a pliable dough

First mix the melted butter into the flour. After that, gradually add water a little at a time until you get a moderately stiff dough. I also forgot that the original recipe calls for warm water and used regular temperature water instead and it did not affect the results much. It should come into a ball but it is not elastic since it is made of rice and dhal flour. Break off some of the dough and put it into the press.

Time to pipe the Murukku!! It was quite tricky at first. You need to turn the handle of the Murukku press to get the dough out and you have to twirl the dough to make a spiral at the same time. My nephew Kayden helped out too. He made a mess of course. Luckily he got tired of it after a while and ran off to play.

After a few tries, I got the hang of it and manage to make pretty swirls. Then it is off to deep fry it until it is golden. It tasted just like store bought and very crunchy!!

Vegetable Pork Roll Bento

This simple bento is filled with Vegetables Pork Roll, Spinach with Cashew Nut Dressing and Tamagoyaki with Tomato sticks.

For the pork rolls, carrots and long beans is wrapped with pork belly thats been marinated with teriyaki sauce, dipped into corn flour with a dash of pepper, then dipped into eggs and finally covered with breadcrumbs and shallow fried.

Cashew Nut Dressing

5 stalks Spinach (cut to pieces)
8-10 Raw Cashew Nuts
1/2 tsp Sesame Oil
1 tsp Japanese Soy Sauce
1 tsp Mirin
1/2 tsp Sugar

Put spinach in bowl, cover with enough water to submerge spinach. Microwave for 3-4 mins until soft but still slightly crunchy.

Toast the Cashew Nuts in a toaster until golden, process till fine. (I think it will be better if you can run it through a food processor but since the the amount is too small, it is quite hard so I only gave it a few pounds hence mine is quite coarse).

Mix the crushed Cashew Nuts with the rest of the ingredients until it becomes a paste. Mix with the hot spinach (right out of the microwave, remember to remove from water) and its done.