Description
Crunchy rice and lentil based savoury snack from Tamil Nadu.
Thattai – Tamil
Chekkalu – Telugu
Nippattu – Kannada
| Ingredients | |
|---|---|
| ¼ cup | Gram flour (besan) |
| 1 cup | Rice flour |
| ¼ cup | Dalia flour / pottukadalai maavu |
| ¼ tsp | Asafoetida powder |
| 1 pinch | Baking soda |
| ½ tsp | Salt |
| 1 tsp | Cumin seeds |
| ½ tsp | Sesame seeds (white) |
| 1 tsp | Kashmiri red chili powder |
| 2 tbsp | Roasted peanuts (crushed) |
| 15 nos | Curry leaves (finely chopped) |
| 2 tbsp | Bengal gram |
| 1 tsp | Unsalted butter (melted) |
| ½ cup | Water (approx for mixing) |
| 1 tsp | Desiccated coconut (powdered) |
| ½ tsp | Red chili powder |
| 4 cup | Oil |
Instructions
Soak Bengal gram in water for at least 45 minutes. Wash, drain and keep aside.
Dry roast the peanuts and crush them coarsely and keep aside.
Slightly powder the desiccated coconut and keep aside.
Take a bowl and mix all dry ingredients (Rice flour, Dalia flour, Gram flour, Kashmiri chili powder, Red chili powder, Asafoetida powder, Baking soda, Cumin seeds, Sesame seeds, Crushed peanuts, Powdered coconut, Chopped curry leaves, Drained Bengal gram and salt)
Melt the butter and add it to the mixture and gently mix to combine. Divide the flour into 2 portions. Reason for doing this ????—- when you add water to all the flour, it will tend to become too soft, by the time you finish deep frying the whole batch. This could change the consistency of the dough, as time goes by and will make it absorb more oil while frying. So its always better to divide and do in small batches. Moreover you can adjust the consistency with extra flour and salt in case if something goes wrong.
Take one portion and add half the water mentioned and form a stiff dough, something like our chapatti dough. Divide and make into small equal size dough balls.
Take a zip lock, apply some oil, place a ball and fold the zip lock. Using your palm, press and flatten as much as possible, like a puri or disc, thickness of which should be approximately like a credit card. Open the zip lock and slowly remove the thattai from one corner, it should come off easily.
Heat the oil, drop them slowly and deep fry until golden. The key to crunchy thattai is to fry them over medium flame. So, always adjust the temperature by first sampling and remember to do this, after each and every batch.
Drain the excess fat by placing them over a paper towel. Let cool completely and store in air-tight container for up to a month.
Notes
How to sample???? Take a small portion of the dough—- flatten as much as possible—- deep fry—- let cool completely for 10 minutes(This is very important, bcos warm thattai will be crunchy on the outside with very soft inside, that’s why cooling completely is very essential to check the exact taste and texture)—- eat it—- check for salt and crunchiness—- try to adjust if something is missing.
Using a poori press, sandwich the dough ball between two zip locks to flatten.
Secret to crispy thattai could be frying them over medium flame, but that doesn’t mean you can keep for long time in the oil. As soon as you drop them in hot oil, it would rise up to the top, let stay for 10 seconds, then flip to the other side and cook for another 10 seconds. When done, all the vigorous bubbles surrounding the thattai will come to a stop and it will float on top of the oil. This is the right stage, immediately remove and cool. It should look pale orange in colour and once its cooled completely it will turn into glorious golden thattais.
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