They don't make murukkus any more these days like the way Paati used to. Take the 'benne' murukku and stuff 'em, I say. Real men don't eat benne murukkus. Rice Murukku is the real Murukku - Tirunelveli style.Murukku making is an art, or should we say 'was' an art. Yes, surely it is dying out. You hardly get to see Rice murukkus any more these days, save at the odd wedding.There were no fancy gadgets those days for puzhinjifying the dough into hot oil. Nor were there monster grinders to prepare the dough. The good old 'aattu kallu' was all the paatis and maamis of yore had.
Summer vacations were for eating murukkus and loafing around in the hot sun, not giving a damn about what the elders at home had to say about becoming 'black' due to excessive exposure to the sun ! And what murukkus they were ! Hmmmm.....Like i said there were no fancy gadgets that Paati used for laying out the twisted, perfect concentric circles murukku dough on wet white towels with blue borders. She had magic in her hands. Wonder how many murukkus over one's lifetime one needs to make before one acquires that level of expertise. Flying fingers were all you could see. And lo ! Ten more murukkus on the towel. Taking one tip of the towel at an angle in one hand and gently transferring one murukku at a time to the other hand and ever so smoothly dropping it into boiling oil, was with Paati the work of an instant. No sooner than five or six of these murukkus found their way into the oil, out would come the huge, flat, black round ladle with the long handle with the tip bent at right angles. Turning the murukkus over a few times would give those babies a rich golden yellow hue. Smack ! Then the final transfer into the the aluminium 'thookku' producing the distinct clackety-clang sound !
I'm convinced these murukkus useed to taste at least 25% better than text book because of the love that went into making it.
Yep. Pure art. How many 'modern' girls of today can claim to make murukku like this ?
