Can you believe Diwali is less than a week away ? Time really flies, it seems like just yesterday that 2014 began and we were wishing everyone for the new year. And just like that, in a blink of an eye it seems, it is already mid October, the year is almost coming to an end and the festival season is upon us. I've had some requests from my readers for Diwali recipes, and I will do my best to provide a few recipes for sweets and savories before Diwali. I recently posted this coconut burfi which is a great sweet to make for Diwali, so I decided to post one savory snack before another sweet :)
Ribbon pakoda / murrukku or ribbon bakshanam is a savory snack made with rice flour and chickpea flour. Some versions of it also used split black gram lentil flour / udad flour or puffed chickpea lentil four/ dalia/ pottu kadalai maavu. I had already posted one version earlier, which is the way my mother in law makes her ribbon pakoda. This version of ribbon pakoda is the way it is made in my mothers side of the family. This is a quick and easy snack to make and is definitely a crowd pleaser. I've made this a few times when my friends come over and all of them like it a lot :-)
Ingredients and Method to make ribbon bakshanam
1 1/2 cups rice flour (chawal ka atta/ arisi maavu)
1 cup chick pea flour ( besan/ kadalai maavu)
1 tsp chili powder ( or to taste ) ( lal mirch/ thani molaga podi)
Salt to taste
2 Tbsp butter melted (makhan/ vennai)
A press and a disc in the desired shape to press out the dough.
Oil to deep fry the bakshanam/ fritters
In a large bowl, mix together both the flours. Add salt to taste and chili powder and mix again.
Add melted butter to the flour mix and mix well.
Add water as needed, a little at a time to make a soft pliable dough. If the dough is too soft, it will absorb more oil, if it is too stiff it will be difficult to shape, so add water slowly and knead till you get soft pliable dough.Divide the dough into 3 to 4 oval balls as will fit in the press.
Heat oil on medium heat. You know when the oil is ready if a small bit of dough dropped into the oil rises to the top immediately. If it sits at the bottom, the oil needs to be heated some more.
When the oil is hot, place one oval dough ball in the press, close and squeeze out some dough directly into the oil in a circular motion.
If you are not comfortable in directly pressing dough into the oil, you can press a little out on a kitchen tissue and slowly and gently slide it into the oil.
Flip over once or twice and fry until the bakshanam turns evenly golden brown, remove from heat and place on a kitchen tissue.
When cool, store in an air tight container and enjoy with tea/ coffee. This snack can be stored for one to two weeks easily if it lasts that long :)
If you are looking for bakshanam/ chakli/ savory Diwali snacks, here are a few more
 Thattai ~ Flattened Rice flour snacks |  Thenkozhal ~ Rice and Lentil flour fritters |  Chakli ~ Rice and Mung bean Lentil Fritters |
