Thattai - Crispy Rice flour fritters

My dear friend Livyat - we know each other from way back in college, had sent me a message on Facebook and here's what she said - "Chef Anu : all hail ur blog!! absolutely love it... plllleeeasseee put up some recipes of snacks - you know the muruku, sev variety.. i'm sure you have a treasure trove of those back @ home :).."

Chuckle.Chuckle...Hail back at you Liv! I'm no chef..but I'm indeed a lover of all these wonderful snacks. I know this is not murukku or sev but close. I'm sure you've had these many times. These are one of my favorite snacks too and an easy breezy thing to make - Thattai...meaning something that is flattened out. Hope you like these. Try it out when you can and let me know how it turned out for you.

This does not require too many things or special instruments to make - just a few ingredients, a plastic sheet and you're on your way to crispy tasty land.

Take about 4 cups of Rice flour. This makes about almost 50 of these little guys. You can halve the quantity for a smaller yield.

On the side, soak about 1 tbsp of channa daal and 1 tbsp of toor daal in hot water for about 30 mins or until they are a little tender and easy to break.

In a small pan, take about 2 1/2 tbsp of urad daal. This is correct quantity for 4 cups of rice flour.

Dry roast the urad dall till they turn golden and it smells like urad heaven!

Once they turn golden, move it to a mixer to be ground.

And grind it up until you get a fine and soft fresh powder.

Now, add this to the rice flour. Add salt to taste for the whole flour mix. About 2-3 tsps.

Next, pour about 1/3 cup of melted butter to the flour mixture.

Using fingertips, gently mix up the butter and flour. Yes..wash your hands before you do this. This recipe is a hands on recipe - literally. There's going to be more hands on work further down..so keep em clean! No gardening work allowed in between!

Then, add the soaked daals to the flour.

Mix  up everything well. This is still a dry mixture except for the butter. Take a little of the flour - you could roughly divide the whole thing into 3-4 batches.

Add water a little at a time to one portion of the flour mix and knead gently with fingertips. Cover the rest and set aside so that it does not get dried up.

Knead until you get a dough consistency like this.

Now, make small balls out of the dough - roughly the size of small lemons or whatever you feel is almost this size!

To make the thattais, oil a ziploc bag or a plastic sheet.

Take one ball at a time and press it around to make it flat with your fingertips. Make it as thin as  you can without breaking it apart. You can also use your palm to press these if you don't like the little finger impressions.

Here are a few ready to be dunk in hot oil.

Fry in hot oil - make sure the oil is not too hot. Fry in medium heat until they turn golden.

Like this. They're done - how easy was that! Drain off the excess oil on a paper towel.

All you have to do now is bite into this crunchiness. Aaaah...nice..but since we always like to make things better, here's a better idea.

Bite into a few of these and sip along a hot cup of coffee.

And not just coffee - how about a gorgeous cup of South Indian filter coffee. Aaah...indeed!!

Enjoy. Peace Out!