We call this onion thattai back home as udumalpettai thattai. This is a family favorite and loved by everyone at home. If the normal thattai and onion pakoda married together, the result would be this amazing onion thattai murukku or thattu vadai as its called at our place. Its incredibly crispy and very tasty. This again is a recipe from the snack queen of the house, Padma Akka (Vinodh’s Sister) .
Soak the raw rice in water for one hour. After soaking for an hour, drain the water completely and dry the rice by spreading evenly on a cloth for 2 hours. The rice needs to dry in shade. Not under the sun.
Once the rice is dried and has very little moisture left, grind to a fine powder in a mixie. Usually the rice is ground to a fine powder by giving it in a rice mill. If grinding at home, grind in very small quantities in a mixie until its smooth. If grinding at home, remember that it will be very slightly grainy and not perfectly smooth. Grind as smooth as you can. Once the powder is ready, sieve and set aside.
Grind the fried gram dal (pottukadalai in tamil) – also called as the chutney dal to a fine powder. Sieve on top of the ground rice flour. Set aside.
Add in a cup of chopped onion and chopped curry leaves. Grind the dried red chillies to big flakes in a mixie and add it to the bowl.
Add in the ghee and the salt.
Add 125 ml of water to begin with. Mix well to form a pliable dough. If the dough is very dry, add in a tablespoon of water at a time and mix. Don’t be tempted to add a lot of water. We need a tight dough. Don’t make the dough very soft. It might become messy when shaping them into thattai, and will consume a lot of oil. Set aside. Let the dough rest for half an hour before frying.
Take a big marble size piece of dough and spread it on a plastic wrap with your hands to form a circle. The circle need not be perfect. The edges might crack a little and that’s fine. If its really difficult to spread, and the dough is cracking a lot, add a tablespoon of water to the dough to make it a little soft. But use caution not to mess up the dough. Get 5-6 thattais ready on the plastic wrap before you start frying.
Heat oil in a pan until hot. Gently remove the spread dough from the plastic wrap and place it in oil. Gently turn the thattai after 40 seconds. Wait for it to be golden and the bubbles in oil to have considerably subsided.
Remove and drain on paper towels. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Tips for making thattai: If the murukku is hard to the bite, add in a teaspoon of ghee to the dough and mix well. Fat makes the murukku softer. Don’t add a lot of ghee. The murukkus will lose its crispiness and will turn out to be softer. Add ghee only if really necessary. If the dough is really dry, then add in a tablespoon of water to make it pliable. Murukku making is a very patient process. This recipe for thattai murukku took about an hour to fry. I fried 5 thattais at one time. You can fry more in a bigger pan if you want to speed up the frying.
Store the onion thattai murukku in a paper lined air tight box for up-to 10 days. It has never lasted that long at my place.
- I used rice cups for measurement. 1 rice cup = 160ml
- 2 Cups Raw Rice
- 1 Cup Fried Gram Dal (Pottu Kadalai)
- 1 Cup Chopped Onions
- 10 Curry Leaves, Chopped
- 6 Dried Red Chillies, Chopped
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Tablespoon Ghee
- 125 - 150 ml water
- Soak the raw rice in water for one hour. After soaking for an hour, drain the water completely and dry the rice by spreading evenly on a cloth for 2 hours. Grind to a fine powder in a mixie. Sieve.
- Grind the fried gram dal to a fine powder. Sieve on top of the ground rice flour. Set aside.
- Add in a cup of chopped onion and chopped curry leaves. Grind the dried red chillies to big flakes in a mixie and add it to the bowl.
- Add in the ghee and the salt.
- Add 125 ml of water to begin with. Mix well to form a pliable dough. If the dough is very dry, add in a tablespoon of water at a time and mix.
- Let the dough rest for half an hour before frying.
- Take a marble size piece of dough and spread it on a plastic wrap with your hands to form a circle.
- Heat oil in a pan until hot. Gently remove the spread dough from the plastic wrap and place it in oil. Gently turn the thattai after 40 seconds. Wait for it to be golden and the bubbles in oil to have considerably subsided.
- Remove and drain on paper towels. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Store the onion thattai murukku in a paper lined air tight box for up-to 10 days.
Notes
Tips: If the murukku is hard to the bite, add in a teaspoon of ghee to the dough and mix well. Fat makes the murukku softer. Don’t add a lot of ghee. The murukkus will lose its crispiness and will turn out to be softer. Add ghee only if really necessary. If the dough is really dry, then add in a tablespoon of water to make it pliable. Murukku making is a very patient process. This recipe for thattai murukku took about an hour to fry. I fried 5 thattais at one time. You can fry more in a bigger pan if you want to speed up the frying.
- Author: Kannamma - Suguna Vinodh
- Prep Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Snacks
- Cuisine: Tamilnadu
- I used rice cups for measurement. 1 rice cup = 160ml
- 2 Cups Raw Rice
- 1 Cup Fried Gram Dal (Pottu Kadalai)
- 1 Cup Chopped Onions
- 10 Curry Leaves, Chopped
- 6 Dried Red Chillies, Chopped
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Tablespoon Ghee
- 125 - 150 ml water
- Soak the raw rice in water for one hour. After soaking for an hour, drain the water completely and dry the rice by spreading evenly on a cloth for 2 hours. Grind to a fine powder in a mixie. Sieve.
- Grind the fried gram dal to a fine powder. Sieve on top of the ground rice flour. Set aside.
- Add in a cup of chopped onion and chopped curry leaves. Grind the dried red chillies to big flakes in a mixie and add it to the bowl.
- Add in the ghee and the salt.
- Add 125 ml of water to begin with. Mix well to form a pliable dough. If the dough is very dry, add in a tablespoon of water at a time and mix.
- Let the dough rest for half an hour before frying.
- Take a marble size piece of dough and spread it on a plastic wrap with your hands to form a circle.
- Heat oil in a pan until hot. Gently remove the spread dough from the plastic wrap and place it in oil. Gently turn the thattai after 40 seconds. Wait for it to be golden and the bubbles in oil to have considerably subsided.
- Remove and drain on paper towels. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Store the onion thattai murukku in a paper lined air tight box for up-to 10 days.
Notes
Tips: If the murukku is hard to the bite, add in a teaspoon of ghee to the dough and mix well. Fat makes the murukku softer. Don’t add a lot of ghee. The murukkus will lose its crispiness and will turn out to be softer. Add ghee only if really necessary. If the dough is really dry, then add in a tablespoon of water to make it pliable. Murukku making is a very patient process. This recipe for thattai murukku took about an hour to fry. I fried 5 thattais at one time. You can fry more in a bigger pan if you want to speed up the frying.
- Author: Kannamma - Suguna Vinodh
- Prep Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Snacks
- Cuisine: Tamilnadu
Find it online : https://www.kannammacooks.com/thattai-murukku-thattai-vadai/
My son first had this at my friend Sunita’s place. The kids call it as sweet chapati. It makes into the school snack box at-least twice a week. Sunita’s younger son Charan is a sweet lover. Its one of his favorites. He is the most naughtiest in the gang. Here is one incident that happened a couple of years ago. Painting was going on at my place and they were doing the doors that day. Painters had just painted the front door and the frame. The frame that ran on the floor was still wet. Charan came home. My husband stopped him at the doorway and said, “Charan, don’t stamp on the frame OK. It’s still wet with paint.” He said nothing. Instantly, he jumped on the frame, placing his foot firmly on the frame and then jumped back to where he was. He said “Vinodh Uncle, I should not stamp like this. Am I right?” My husband froze for a second. He burst out with laughter and said “Yes. That’s perfect.” He was 5 years old then. We did not paint the frame back again. We just left it like that with the foot print on. We all must have laughed for a good one hour and kept the foot print as a remembrance. The paint has now faded away but we still laugh whenever we speak about it. Here is our Charan, the man – Spider-Super-Bat-Captain-America man!!!
Here is a kids favorite, wheat obbattu.
Lets make the dough for the obbattu first. Add in the water, ghee and salt to the flour and knead well for a couple of minutes. If the dough is very dry, add a couple of tablespoon of water. Set aside for 2 hours. The dough will become soft and pliable during the resting period. The ghee makes the dough soft.
Soak the chana dal in water for an hour.
Cook the soaked chana dal with 1 and 1/2 cup of water in a pressure cooker. Cook for 5 whistles on a medium flame. Remove from heat and wait for the pressure to settle naturally.
Drain the cooked chana dal and grind it in a mixie along with jaggery, cardamom powder and salt. Powder the jaggery before adding it to the mixie. Else the motor will burn out. Grind to a smooth paste. Make sure its smooth as it will be easier to roll the obbattu later. If the chana dal is in pieces and not ground well, it may pop out while rolling making a mess. Try not to add extra water while grinding.
Transfer the ground mixture to a pan and fry for 5 minutes to take out the excess moisture. Set aside to cool. Make small lime sized balls out of the mixture and set aside on a plate.
I had 16 balls. They were the true sweet sixteen!
Stuffing the obbattu Knead the well rested dough for a minute and make 16 balls out of the mixture.
Take each ball and gently flatten and dust with flour liberally. Gently roll into a small circle. Place a ball of pooranam – lentil mixture in the middle.
Pull up the atta dough around the stuffing. Pinch the dough on top to seal.
Repeat with the remaining dough. Let the stuffed dough balls rest for 10 minutes before starting to roll. The gluten in the dough will relax and rolling will be easy. Pat the stuffed balls again in flour and roll the dough very gently. VERY GENTLY. If the dough breaks, add in a little more flour. Set aside.
Set a griddle on heat on medium flame and place the obbattu and sprinkle some oil or ghee. Leave it for 20 seconds. The obbattu would bubble up.
Flip the obbattu and cook for 30 seconds. Flip again if necessary. Remove from heat and set aside on a plate to cool.
Store in a refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat and serve warm when required.
- Measurements used – Rice cups – 1 cup = 160ml
For the dough
- 2 cups Atta – whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cup water
- 3 teaspoon ghee
- pinch of salt
For Pooranam / stuffing
- 1 cup chana dal
- 1 and 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder
- 1 cup jaggery
- pinch of salt
Other ingredients
- 1/4 cup atta for dusting while making obbattu
- 3 tablespoon oil or ghee for frying
- Add in the water, ghee and salt to the flour and knead well for a couple of minutes. Tf the dough is very dry, add a couple of tablespoon of water. Set aside for 2 hours. The dough will become soft and pliable during the resting period. The ghee makes the dough soft.
- Soak the chana dal in water for an hour.
- Cook the soaked chana dal with 1 and 1/2 cup of water in a pressure cooker. Cook for 5 whistles on a medium flame. Remove from heat and wait for the pressure to settle naturally.
- Drain the cooked chana dal and grind it in a mixie along with jaggery, cardamom powder and salt. Grind to a smooth paste. Make sure its smooth as it will be easier to roll the obbattu later. If the chana dal is in pieces and not ground well, it may pop out while rolling making a mess. Try not to add extra water while grinding.
- Transfer the ground mixture to a pan and fry for 5 minutes to take out the excess moisture. Set aside to cool.
- Make small lime sized balls out of the mixture and set aside on a plate. I had 16 balls. They were the true sweet sixteen!
- Stuffing the obbattu
- Knead the dough for a minute and make 16 balls out of the mixture. Take each ball and gently flatten and dust with flour liberally.
- Gently roll into a small circle. Place a ball of pooranam – lentil mixture in the middle.
- Pull up the atta dough around the stuffing. Pinch the dough on top to seal.
- Repeat with the remaining dough. Let the stuffed dough balls rest for 10 minutes before starting to roll. The gluten in the dough will relax and rolling will be easy.
- Pat the stuffed balls again in flour and roll the dough very gently. VERY GENTLY. If the dough breaks, add in a little more flour. Set aside.
- Set a griddle on heat on medium flame and place the obbattu and sprinkle some oil or ghee. Leave it for 20 seconds. The obbattu would bubble up. Flip the obbattu and cook for 30 seconds. Flip again if necessary. Remove from heat and set aside on a plate to cool.
- Store in a refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat and serve warm when required.
- Author: Kannamma - Suguna Vinodh
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: South Indian
