Thukkuda – An evening snack

My mom used to make this Thukkuda – which is a crunchy snack made using Maida especially on Krishna Jayanthi. She used to make a big bucket full of this snack. But me and my sister used to finish it up in 3 to 4 days. One important thing is that, it stays good for up to one week in room temperature.

I felt like eating it, hence i decided to make it. Very few and simple ingredients, but some tricks are involved. It is a perfect evening snack and goes well with tea and coffee.

Servings : 10

Prep time : 30 minutes

Cook time : 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1. All purpose flour or Maida – 2 cups
2. Hot oil – 4 tablespoons (for making the dough)
3. Oil – 750 ml to 1 litre (for frying)
4. Finely crushed Garlic or Garlic powder – 1 teaspoon
5. Red Chilli powder – 1 teaspoon (very spicy one)
6. Cumin – 2 teaspoons
7. Salt – 1 teaspoon
8. Water – 1/2 cup (a little more or little less)

Method:

1. First, heat 4 tablespoons of any cooking oil (i use vegetable oil) in a small pan and keep it aside. Then take 2 cups all purpose flour in a bowl. Add to it, the hot oil, garlic powder, red chilli powder, cumin, salt and mix well with a fork. (I used garlic powder instead of crushed garlic, both tastes good)

2. Now add water to it, little by little and knead to form a chapathi dough. Cover it with a cloth and allow it to rest for 20 minutes.

3. After 20 minutes, take a ball of dough and roll into a thin chapathi. Then take a knife and start cutting vertical strips from the edge of the dough. Then cut horizontally to form diamond shaped pieces.

4. Do the above step for the rest of the dough and make all the diamond pieces ready. Then place them with enough space in between them so that they do not stick to each other. Leave it in open and allow to dry for 20 minutes. This drying makes the thukkuda to puff up like pooris.

5. Then heat oil (around 750 ml to 1 lt, depending on the size of your vessel) in a deep, wide pan. The oil should not be very hot. It should be of medium heat, so that the diamonds do not change color immediately.

Now, put few diamonds in to the oil. They should start to puff up like pooris. Fry them in medium flame for 3 to 4 minutes, until they crisp up and change into golden brown color as shown below:

6. Fry the remaining diamond pieces and put them on a tissue paper to absorb excess oil. Then store in it an air tight container for up to 1 week in room temperature.

Check out my other snack recipes:

1. Masala vada
2. Banana blossoms vada