Thattai

Thattai is a crunchy South-Indian snack. It is prepared during special celebratory occasions. It is difficult to come across someone who doesn’t like munching on thattais. My mother-in-law makes awesome thattai! So, this recipe comes from her.

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups of finely ground rice flour
2. ½ cup finely ground urad-dhal flour (ulutham maavu)
3. ¼ teaspoon of hing
4. 1 teaspoon of salt (or according to your taste)
5. 1 teaspoon of chilli powder
6. 1 tablespoon of grated coconut
7. ½ stick of unsalted room temperature butter (or ¼ stick)
8. 1 tablespoon of channa dhal
9. 2 teaspoons of sesame seeds (white or black)
10. Oil for deep frying (5-6 cups of vegetable oil)

Preparation:

Top: The consistency of the dough; Bottom: The flattened dough ready to be fried

1. Soak the chana dhal in water for 5-6 hours.
2. Dry roast the rice flour for a few minutes (5-6 minutes) and immediately remove from heat. Be careful to remove the rice flour before it turns pink or brown due to heat. This implies that you instantly transfer the roasted flour to a separate bowl.
3. Sift together the rice flour and urad-dhal flour to make sure there are no fine lumps.
4. To the sifted flour, add salt, hing, chilli powder, and sesame seeds and mix well.
5. Add room-temperature butter and start kneading it with the dry ingredients. Sprinkle water as needed (a total of about 1/2 cup) till the dough starts coming together. Tip: If you own an electric beater, it comes in handy to knead the dough - at least for the most part! It saves your arm muscles a bit of effort.
6. At this stage, add the grated coconut and the soaked channa dhal (without the water) and continue to knead the dough vigorously (with a few sprinkles of water as needed) till it forms a uniform stiff dough with a few cracks. The consistency and texture of the dough should be harder/firmer than chapathi dough. To test: roll out a small ball and press it down on your palm. The pressed dough should crack a bit at the sides. If not, there is a bit more water. You can fix the dough by sprinkling some rice flour and kneading it till it reaches the right state. Note: if the dough cracks a lot and crumbles, then there is very little water, and it’s not the right consistency either.
7. Heat the oil. Test if the oil is hot by dropping a bit of the dough. If it starts sizzling and frying, the oil is hot. Vary the temperature of the oil between medium to medium-high depending on how fast, or how brown the thattai turns (or rather burns).
8. Remove a little bit of dough, roll it between your palms to make a small round ball (the size of a glass marble or slightly smaller), press it between your palms to thin it out nicely. Thin it out as much as you can without tearing the dough. (Trivia: The act of pressing the dough with your fingers and palms is the reason why thattai got its name... for in tamil “thattai” means flat, or pressed)
9. Gently transfer the thattai to the hot oil, turn it around till both sides evenly crisp to a nice golden brown.  Make sure the oil is not too hot - it may result in the dough not cooking properly. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels.

Thattais are great by themselves and don’t require any dip or sauce.