Thenguzhal
Hello peeps. Waddup? The weather in Dubai is beautiful. I am sitting in the balcony drinking my cuppa chai with the last batch of thenguzhal and aah, the feeling is a bliss. The evening cuppa chai is my favourite ‘ME’ time in a day in general and on days when I have something yummy like thenguzhal to have as a snack with some amaze weather is triple bonanza; and oh, Adya is playing with his friend in her place (quadruple bonanza?!:)); So a mom having a cup of chai in her balcony with a snack which is not stolen or claimed and without the usual stealer’s call out to play or chit chat (What did I do to deserve this evening?!). Honestly peeps, I love my son and everyone in my family but I also love an uninterrupted cuppa chai. Blogging during that time is my entertainment so don’t question me on that.
Every year around diwali or any other big festival time, I always think I should learn a few trademark items from my mil or my mom and it never usually happens the way I plan. This time I actually took 2 days off (thanks to covid I have leaves to take :D) and properly learnt what I wanted to. Watched my mil make a batch of these goodness, took down the measurements & then tried it out the following day. I kept running to her asking her if the consistency looks fine and stuff but I pretty much nailed it on my own. I am definitely confident about trying these by myself without amma at home even :D. Now, I wanted to make a smaller batch but amma personally feels that if you decide to deep fry these kind of savouries, its just best to make a fairly decent size/ quantity so they last. So we agreed on something in between :). She made double the quantity when she made, phew!
We get proper maavu/ flour from a place called Al Adil in Dubai but mil mentioned back in India, they used to wash the grains/ pulses, dry and grind it in a mill (my amma did the same too). So I am adding a few pointers in notes related to those as well. So check out the notes as well before trying these and oh, you are most welcome to try a smaller batch. Smaller the batch, lesser the frying time :D. But oh, do make these. They are by far my favourite recipe of ‘thenguzhal’ in a consistent manner. As in, every time mil does this, it turns out tasting the same. So over the years she has perfected her recipe. So this recipe works perfectly peeps.
- 5 cups rice flour
- 1 cup uluthamaavu/ urad dal flour
- 4 tsp cumin seeds/ jeera
- 3 heaped tsp asafoetida
- 100 gms unsalted butter
- 5 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 500 ml vegetable oil for deep frying
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In a kadai, dry roast 1c uluthamaavu/ urad dal flour on medium heat. Just keep stirring it constantly so that the flour doesn't brown. Dry roast for roughly 5 minutes or till the flour's smell/ aroma emanates (the smell emanating is a great indicator and will work bang on).
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Transfer to a wide bowl & let it cool down.
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Meanwhile place 100g unsalted butter in microwave safe bowl. Microwave till the butter melts completely (took 1min 30secs for me).
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After the urad flour cools down, add rice flour, jeera, asafoetida, salt to the bowl. Mix everything with a spatula.
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Now take 3 fistfuls/ spatulas of the dry mixture into a smaller bowl.
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Pour the melted butter and mix everything together into a crumble.
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Now add this crumbled mixture back to the bigger bowl and mix everything together.
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Now add water (1 cup at a time) and keep mixing/ kneading with your hand.
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It took me 3.5cups to get to a dough consistency.
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Next microwave 1/3c veg oil in a microwave safe bowl for 1m 30seconds or till it gets hot.
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Pour this oil on to the dough. Mix everything together to form a smooth pliable dough. What we are looking for is a dough softer than chapathi dough.
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Now heat your kadai with 500ml of vegetable oil on medium flame.
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Meanwhile, make cylindrical moulds roughly the size of your mold press and place it in a bowl.
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Grease the insides of the mould press.
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Check if your oil is hot & ready by throwing in a small piece/ pinch of the dough. If the dough comes sizzling up immediately, we know the oil is ready.
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Now fill up the mould press with 1 of the dough balls & press gently releasing the dough into hot oil (gently draw circles while pressing).
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After 1 minute, flip the thenguzhal using a deep frying spatula.
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Now, wait for the bigger bubbles to stop appearing around the thenguzhal and also the sound to come to a minimum (the sizzling sound of the thenguzhal cooking).
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Drain the thenguzhal out of the oil & place it in a heat withstanding colander/ strainer lined with a kitchen towel.
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Repeat this process till all of the dough is converted into thenguzhal :).
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Store the cooled down thenguzhal in preferrably non plastic boxes (stainless steel/ glass).
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I do not need to tell you what comes next but oh well, I cannot not say it – Enjoy the norukku morukku thenguzhal :). This one lasts for weeks and goes well with everything and anything :).
- Ensure not to brown the urad flour while dry roasting so as to not have dark looking thenguzhal :).
- Here in dubai, we get good quality & fine urad flour & rice flour. Else back in India, she & my mom wet rice and dried it on a muslin/ cotton cloth, dry roasted urad dal and then ground it together in a nearby maavu mill aka grinding mill for use. If your flour isn’t fine/ smooth, run it through a sieve.
- My mil keeps 3 or 4 dough balls at a time open in the bowl. The rest she keeps in that big bowl in which we started mixing the dough initially and covers it with a wet cloth (this is so the dough doesn’t dry out coming in contact with air).
- If your dough breaks while pressing, it means you have added more butter. But that doesn’t matter, it will still taste yummy :).
- The step of taking some fistfuls/ spatula fulls of flour & mixing with butter is to ensure the butter is incorporated properly instead of straight away mixing it in a big bowl with all the flour. If you are trying this with a very small quantity, that step can be omitted.
- Mil asked me to keep the heat on an even medium flame all through the process. Reducing & increasing the flame will result in some of the thenguzhals being underdone / overdone.
Stepwise pictures
Trust me when I say this but there are times when my mil is not very sure which mould press to use :). As in, there is another disc that is very similar to this with a slightly tinier hold & 1 more with a slightly bigger one. So just thought it makes sense to document this as well :). 
This also I felt makes sense to document. So mil covers the area around the flame with old papers typically (but she had some foil which needed to be used) so that oil spillage etc is easy to clean up. 
This is the press we use – Suraj is the brand and this is literally got the press mechanism. Easy to use. 
In a kadai, dry roast 1c uluthamaavu/ urad dal flour on medium heat. Just keep stirring it constantly so that the flour doesn’t brown. 
Optional step – Have someone next to you who will keep you entertained through the process. 
Dry roast for roughly 5 minutes or till the flour’s smell/ aroma emanates (the smell emanating is a great indicator and will work bang on). Transfer to a wide bowl & let it cool down. 
Meanwhile place 100g unsalted butter in microwave safe bowl. 
Microwave till the butter melts completely (took me 1m 30 secs). 
After the urad flour cools down, add rice flour, jeera, salt to the bowl. 
Mix everything with a spatula. 
Now take 3 fistfuls/ spatulas of the dry mixture into a smaller bowl. Pour the melted butter. 
Mix everything together into a crumble. 
Now add this crumbled mixture back to the bigger bowl.. 
..and mix everything together. 
Now add water (1 cup at a time). 
Keep mixing/ kneading with your hand. 
It took me 3.5cups to get to a dough consistency. 
Next microwave 1/3c veg oil in a microwave safe bowl for 1m 30seconds or till it gets hot. Pour this oil on to the dough. 
Mix everything together to form a smooth pliable dough. 
What we are looking for is a dough softer than chapathi dough. 
Now heat your kadai with 500ml of vegetable oil on medium flame. Meanwhile, make cylindrical moulds roughly the size of your mold press and place it in a bowl.
Grease the insides of the mould press. Check if your oil is hot & ready by throwing in a small piece/ pinch of the dough. If the dough comes sizzling up immediately, we know the oil is ready. Now fill up the mold press with 1 of the dough balls. 
Press gently releasing the dough into hot oil (gently draw circles while pressing). 
After 1 minute, flip the thenguzhal using a deep frying spatula.
Now, wait for the bigger bubbles to stop appearing around the thenguzhal and also the sound to come to a minimum (the sizzling sound of the thenguzhal cooking).
Drain the thenguzhal out of the oil & place it in a heat withstanding colander/ strainer lined with a kitchen towel. Repeat this process till all of the dough is converted into thenguzhal :).
Store the cooled down thenguzhal in preferrably non plastic boxes (stainless steel/ glass).
Now for the final step which everyone loves to do – dig into these :). Goes well with chai/ coffee/ thayir sadham/ rasam/ sambhar sadham and everything else.
