Chakli, Chakali, Muruku, Chakuli

Ever since I was a kid I have enjoyed the whole chakuli making process. Thanks to my big family, making chakulis just before chauthi (the Ganesh festival) and on the day of chauthi was always fun! All the ladies of the house, my mom, my grannies, my aunts, the kids :-) all got together to make crispy, crunchy delish chakulis. It was a real team effort. And we had to make a whole lot of chakulis, since we had to make enough chakulis for our big fat family and our relatives (relatives of every single person of our family :-) so that’s n*n). Plus it’s a custom to give chakulis to all our relatives since we worshipped the Lord Ganesha idol in our house for two days during the Ganesh festival.

Chakulis are believed to be Lord Ganesh’s favourite food along with laddoos. Hence, it’s mandatory to make them for his festival. While my mom and aunts get busy sweating it out in the kitchen, during the chakuli making process, we kids got busy eating chakulis one after the other. :-) The family elders too walk in one by one and the chakulis made, disappear in seconds. As we grew older we started helping with the chakuli pressing process as the job can be tedious when you have to make a whole lot of chakulis. I also loved eating the chakuli dough. It tastes amazing. You can press the dough into chakuli and then eat them in layers. That tastes even more amazing! :-) So, my mom or aunties had to shoo me away for emptying the chakulis as their efforts go in vain when I eat the pressed chakulis. :-) We would make a fresh batch of chakulis exclusively for Ganesha on his day of arrival, as naivedya. (If made earlier one of us would accidentally eat them. Only after naivedya could we eat them. Our moms actually hid it in secret places to preserve its sanctity.) Ahhh memories!!!

A huge chakuli is made exclusively for Lord Ganapathi. You can see it in the picture below:

I would love to know what it's like in your house during festivals. Do share your stories with me. :-)

There are several ways you can make great tasting chakulis. Here’s a simple recipe for making crispy, crunchy chakulis.

Ingredients:

250g of rice flour
100g of urad dal/split black lentil
3-4 tablespoons of butter
Salt to taste
2-3 tablespoons of sesame seeds/ajwain
A pinch of turmeric
Oil for deep frying
Chakuli press

If you're using rice & urad dal, then use them in the 2:1 ratio.

Preparation Method:

Preparing urad dal powder: If you can find store bought urad dal powder then you can save yourself some time and effort. Well, if you don’t then follow the below steps:

Heat store bought urad dal in a wok until it starts to brown a little. Saute them for uniform roasting.
Once it cools completely, powder it in a blender into a fine powder.
Sieve the powder so that any bigger pieces of urad dal remaining is left behind and you get only fine urad dal powder.
Keep the flour aside.
Use what's left out after seiving to make anything like dosa etc or add it to mixer during the next round of powdering.

Prepping the rice flour:

Heat store bought rice flour in a wok, until its hot when you touch it with your fingers.
Then let it cool completely.
If you don’t find rice flour them make rice flour at home.

Preparing rice powder:

1. Heat rice grains sauting them uniformly until nicely hot.

2. Allow them to cool. Powder well in a dry mixer jar.

3. Sieve like mentioned above to get fine rice powder.

Preparing the dough for chakulis:

In a bowl mix well rice flour, urad dal powder.
To them add salt, turmeric and mix well.
To the mixture add sesame seeds/ajwain seeds and mix well.
To the mixture add butter, water little by little and knead it into a dry, palatable dough like that of chapathi dough.
Heat oil for deep frying the chakulis. Set it on low heat.
Add 3 tablespoons of hot oil to the dough and mix well.
If your dough is watery, adjust it by adding heated, cooled rice flour little by little.
Transfer the dough into a chakuli press and make chakulis like in the image below.
Set the oil to medium heat and fry the chakulis in batches until they are golden brown in colour.
Do not over crowd your oil.
Transfer the chakulis onto a tissue paper so that all the excess oil drains off.
Transfer the chakulis once they cool into a air tight container and store them.
Make chakulis using the plates which come along with the presser, with thickness of your choice.

P.S: Taste of chakuli depends on the ratio of rice: urad dal. 2:1 ratio works great. Urdal dal or ural dal powder used shouldn't be less.

How crispy, how hard the chakulis turn out depends on amount of urad dal & rice used.

If too little urad dal is used chakulis becomes hard. Urad dal adds that right amount of softness to the chakulis & doesn't make them stone hard.

If urad dal is used in enough quantity chakulis becomes tasty & crunchy & not hard to eat.

Taste of chakulis also depends on butter, sesame, ajwain seeds used.

Crispiness of chakulis depend on amount of hot oil, butter used to make the dough.

Equipment suggestion:

I use a muruku, sev maker like this one. It's sturdy and has been around in the house for more than 20 years. It's also easy to use. This on the other hand is cheaper and is made of steel.

You can even make rice noodles (shevai, sheviya, idiyappam) using the above mentioned press.

Other good old Konkani household snack - called as dabbe khaan in Konkani are Crunchy Rice Vadas (Tandla Vado), Fried Pumpkin Seeds (Bhajil Dudde Bee) & Plantain Chips (Banana Chips)

Variation to make chakuli:

You can also make chakulis by grinding rice too. Tastes different. To make:

Start with heating up rice grains a little until hot. Add water to the wok it's in. Soak for 30 minutes, grind into a fine paste using as little water as you can. Add urad dal powder etc to it & make chakulis like above.

Recipe to make chakuli with coconut water:

In our ancestral home a batch of chakuli is made for naivedya to serve to the Lord who's welcomed home using coconut water. This batch of chakuli dough is made before pooja using coconut water. To make the chakuli dough the steps remain the same as above, in place of water coconut water is used. As rice is considered 'Leppache' coconut water - narla udha is used to counteract it. Hard to make sense of this custom with our millenial & Gen Z logical minds. The chakulis taste different, taste great.

Mom says in earlier days that's how it was done, in the recent past years to avoid chakulis from becoming too dark in colour from the coconut water used mom has been using little coconut water, little milk to make the dough. During earlier days unlike now there wasn't enough milk available so coconut water was the easiest available ingredient she says.

Rest of the steps remain same as the above.

Tags: Chakuli, muruku, Ganesh chaturthi, naivedyam, Konkani cuisine, Konkani food, Konkani recipe

ashtami