NIPPATTU / THATTAI / CHEKKALU RECIPE – SPICY RICE CRACKERS

Who all are in for a crispy spicy crunchy munchy along with a cup of hot tea ? Hmm.. I can hear so many ” ME .. ME ..” there..haha. I know most of us love crispy spicy snacks. Today i have for you all ” Nippattu ” – one of the popular snacks from Karnataka. They are also popular in other states of South india by different names like ” Thattai ” and ” Chekkalu “. These Spicy Rice Crackers are not only perfect  tea time accompaniment but also one of the common snacks prepared during Krishna Janmashtami n Diwali.Since Krishna Janmashtami is around the corner, I thought of posting this recipe….

Nipattu is basically a savory , crispy disc like snack made from rice flour that is traditionally deep fried .They are very easy to make n takes much lesser time when compared to kodubale .There are many variations of Nippatu recipes which varies from family to family and state to state. Like Karnataka version is little thick and has peanut n little maida in it. Tamilnadu’ s thattai and Andra’s Chekkalu are thin and light with little peanut or no peanut.The recipe that i am sharing with you all is my mom’s recipe, typical Mysore-Bangalore style nipattu .

Check Out the Video recipe here :

NIPPATTU

Smitha Kalluraya

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Course Snack

Cuisine south indian

Ingredients

 

• 1 Glass Rice flour
• 1/4 Glass Maida /All purpose flour
• 1/4 cup Fried gram dal/hurigadle/pottu kadalai
• 1/4 cup Peanut
• 1/4 cup fresh coconut or dry coconut (kopra)
• 5 - 10 Red Chillies, ( based on your spice level)
• 1 tbsp Cumin Seeds/ Jeera
• 1 tbsp White sesame seeds/ White til
• or two a pinch Asafoetida/ hing
• Few Curry Leaves
• Salt

Instructions

 

• Heat a pan and dry roast maida till its warm.Keep aside to cool.
• Roughly crush roasted gram and peanuts separately. Don't powder such that there are few pieces of peanuts. Nipatt tastes good when u get pieces of peanut ,fried gram in your bites.
  
• 
• Grind dry coconut,jeera,red chillies n curry leaves to a fine paste.
  
• In a large mixing bowl,add rice flour,maida,powdered roasted gram,powdered peanut,ground masala,hing,sesame seeds and salt .Mix well .
  
• Now add about 2 tbsp very hot oil to the nipatt mix. The oil should be so hot that when you pour it n dry flour bubbles should form. Mix well.
  
• Add water in small batches to form a soft chapathi like dough.The dough should not be too soft or too hard. Divide the dough to small lemon sized balls.
  
• Now, heat the oil for deep frying in a kadai or pan on medium flame.
• Take a thick plastic sheet or butter paper. Grease the sheet as well your hands with little oil. (This helps in removing nippattu from the sheet for deep frying).Take a small lemon sized ball and flatten it using your palm to form a small circle .Dont make it too thin or too thick.
  
• Once the oil is hot,gently holding the end of the foil in one hand, gently remove the flattened discs and drop them into the hot oil in batches of 4-5 depending on the size of the kadai used to deep fry.Deep fry them on medium low flame on both sides till they turn crisp and golden brown both sides.Once done, remove from oil and transfer to a paper towel.
  
• Repeat the same for the remaining dough.
• Store the Nipattu / Thattai / Chekkalu / Rice crackers in air tight containers once cooled. Remains fresh for minimum 1 month.
  

Video

Notes

1. If the nipattu s are drinking oil ---> addition of hot oil to the dough is more,or flame is too low or quantity of peanut is more. then either alter the flame or add some more rice flour
2. If the nipattus are becoming soft ---> they are not properly cooked .
3. Check the oil readiness by dropping a small ball of dough into the oil. It has to come up immediately. This shows that oil has attained the right temperature n you can gently slide the nipattu.
4. While dropping the prepared nippattus, the flame should be high,once they float to to top,reduce the flame to medium or medium low flame and fry till they become crisp.The secret of getting crunchy nipattu lies here.
5. In case you are making them in large quantity , dont add water to whole mix. Instead divide into parts, add water only to 1st part ,knead well n do circles .Once the 1st part is over ,add water to next part. This way nipattu will not turn soggy.
6. You can also add 1-2 tbsp fine sooji to the mix to make it extra crisp.
7. Addition of dry coconut increases the shelf life.
8. If you want you can also add a fist of soaked moong dal for the additional crispy feeling between your bites.