Sago Muruku for ICC - April

I am still struggling with my computer...somehow I managed to download my pictures for now...
This old laptop has different editing software...now thats a struggle too....problems and problems....

Anyway, this month ICC was Sago Muruku. I had made this last month itself, but transfering the pics from the other laptop to this one took me so much time!! But the bright side was the murukus came out good and tasted yummy and are all over too!!! Everyone in our house loves murukus, make them anyway, they will be gone fast. And we were having friends coming over the Good Friday weekend...so they were the tasters for this recipe!!! Not all of my murukus came out as perfect as they look above...but they surely taste good!!!

The only part which was little scary to me was bursting of the sago, this had happened once to my friend while making sabudana vada and she got a few 2nd degree burns( I think or 1st degree, don't remember) on her arms. For this reason I made sure I soaked the sabudana well. According to ICC, it was to soak for 3 hours, but I think I soaked it for 5 hours atleast. Other not so common ingredient used was fried gram flour, known also as buni hui channa daal or putnalu pappu. It is found here in US in the daal form, I powdered it at home. Other than that, rest of the ingredients are the usual ones.

Ingredients:

Rice Flour - 2 cups
Besan flour - 1/2 cup
Fried gram flour - 1/2 cup
Sago - 1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Curd - 50 gms (half of half cup)
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp or as per taste
I added a tsp of jeera for added flavor
Oil for frying

Special Utensil needed: Muruku Achu

Method:

Soak Sago in Butter milk for 3 hrs ( I soaked it for 5 hrs), please ensure that you soak it enough else you may risk having the sago burst.
Make powder of the fried gram in a dry grinder.
Mix all the flour together, heat 50 gms oil, mix to the flour along with salt and chili powder. Then add the buttermilk soaked sago slowly and knead to a chapati dough consistency. I think my sago soaked up most of the buttermilk, so I added some more water to knead it into a dough, and my dough was little on the softer side.

Heat oil for deep frying.In the muruku achu, add the dough.
I made the murukus using the achu onto the back of the holed spoon, slotted spoon (gharete), then slowly dropped them into the heated oil.

Cook on medium flame to ensure the muruku is cooked well. Drain on napkin and store in an air tight container. They might not be crispy when they are hot, but they will crisp up when they cool down.
Serve when they are cold, with tea or as a snack. Enjoy!!!

Notes:
Ensure sago soaks in buttermilk well and is soft or else it will burst when you press it down in hot oil.
Cook on medium to ensure even cooking.
Fried Gram flour is fried channa dal that is available commercially. It is general sold as the dal, we have to powder it at home. This is also referred as chutney dal as it is used in making coconut chutney.