Theankuzhal

Theankuzhal is one of the popular savories prepared in many house-hold in South India, especially Tamil Nadu , on the occasion of Diwali. It is a crispy deep fried snack. It is made with rice flour. Children will love this for its crispness and taste. Also it makes up a good snack during tea/coffee time too. Make this Theakuzhal this diwali and relish it with your family.

To make this Theankuzhal you need the traditional Theankuzhal mould and press, which is available in the market (also illustrated in photo). To make the Theankuzhal dough easy to drop when squeezed, prior to its preparation, grease the inside of the mould and bottom of the press with oil, this will enable smooth flow of the dough from the mould into your pan.

Ingredients:

Rice Flour - 2 Cups

Urud dhal powder - 4 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Hing - 1 tsp

Butter - 4 tbsp

Water - 1 Cup

Hot oil - 3 tsp - For mixing

Oil - For frying

How to make urud dhal powder:

 

1. Take urud dhal and dry fry until it becomes light brown.

2. Cool and powder and keep ready for use.

Method:

1. In a big bowl/vessel, add the rice flour, urud dhal powder, cumin seeds, salt, hing, oil and butter and mix well. Add the water little by little and make a dough similar to chapathi dough in consistency (the dough need not be too thick, slightly loose dough is good).

2. In a big kadai, add required oil and once it becomes hot, take the "Theankuzhal press mould" and stuff some dough into it and squeeze the dough into circles into the hot oil. Wait till the Theankuzhal becomes light brown in color, keep turning sides to cook evenly. Once it turns light brown, remove from the oil and shift into another vessel spread with tissue paper to absorb any excess oil.

 

Tips:

 

If you are not comfortable directly dropping the dough into the oil, then take a big ladle with holes (jalli karandhi as we call in tamil), reverse the ladle and grease it with little oil and then squeeze the mould in circular motion to make the theankuzhal on the reversed side. Then hold the ladle with the dough on top and take it close to the hot oil or slightly touching the oil and reverse it (so the squeezed dough comes below) , the dough drops into the oil & then remove the ladle from the oil. Repeat this for each theankuzhal that you make.