Manoharam – a sweet 'n' crunchy Palakkadan snack

The word 'manoharam' means beautiful. And we think it is true in every sense of it when it comes to a Kerala snack named Manoharam. This crunchy, sweet delight is a traditional Palakkadan snack that can be easily made at home. It is great to have with the evening tea. The burst of flavours are guaranteed to remind you of your childhood and the delicious snacks from our grandparents' kitchen. Here is how to make it at home.

Ingredients
1 cup chickpea flour
1 cup rice flour
1 tsp urad dal batter
A pinch of salt
Water as required
1 cup jaggery
1 tsp dried ginger (chukku)
1 tsp cardamom
½ litre oil

Preparation
Take chickpea flour, rice powder and urad dal batter in a bowl
Add salt and water as required
Mix well and knead it into a soft dough
Fix the murukku mould in an idiyappam presser (sevanazhi)
Fill the presser with this dough
heat oil in a thick-bottomed pan
Press the dough into hot oil
Break the fried snack into long pieces
Make jaggery syrup by melting jaggery in water
Add dried ginger and cardamom powder into the syrup
Cook until the jaggery syrup is nice and thick
Add the fried snack into the jaggery syrup
Mix well until the pieces are nicely coated with syrup
Serve hot along with tea
Store the remaining in an air-tight bottle

Watch recipe video here