Monday, April 18, 2011

the mystery snack i loved .....from chennai into my kitchen ...


I bought these from Ananda adyar bhavan , Chennai and did not know the name of this beauty. I saw the tiny specks of sesame , some daal and pepper corns and i knew i would love them and immediately bought a packet. Later i realized i should have bought at least four. But the mistake had been done. I had to fend for myself when this flavor was reminded ...

I decided to take the plunge and started guessing the ingredients. This was very different from the Mathhi we make in the north as it was quite hard and chewy. I liked this bite , partly because i like chewing on something whenever my migraine strikes. The spicy taste was another thing i wanted to achieve.

I could guess rice flour and mung daal and the spices and made a small batch . I was so happy to get the exact spice blend , but the texture was very very different ...it was more crisp as it soaked more oil while frying . I made them in square shapes and the difference can be seen clearly...


I call all my blogger friends from Chennai who happen to see this post , please help me with this recipe , and the name of this wonderful snack.


The spice mix i used was a blend of cumin , black pepper and sesame seeds in 1:1:2 ratio . Some half boiled yellow mung daal was kneaded with rice flour and this spice blend without any shortening . Rolled out dough was cut into squares and fried in hot oil.


While everybody liked my homemade version , because it was more crisp and all of us North Indians are so used to our crisp matthhis , i wanted the same hard chewy texture of the original snack....please enlighten me with the name .


Also , my home made savories were a bit darker in color . Mostly because the spices should have been very coarse , but i wanted them to be a bit mixed up , the spicing part was perfect.... I guess it should have had some roasted chana flour too. What say ?

I will make a baked version with the same spices as i loved the spices in it . The most awesome find of this experiment was this spice blend as i used some of the leftover coarse powder for my vegetable stir fries and it was great . We learn with every small step we take..


Anybody there ? Tell me please the name .... and the recipe if you are a generous soul :)

Solve the mystery for me ....

31 comments:

  1. Milagu vadai i guess.. (milagu means pepper)

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  2. yummy...... luks so delicious.. very tempting clicks!!!

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  3. check this out, if u can make out the name of the savoury from the picture.... http://www.aabsweets.in/savouries.html

    We have it in Bangalore too, and I simply love the food there.... Will check it out for sure when I visit next time.....

    Looks something yummy and new, am also going to get it :)

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  4. And, see if this helps to refine ur recipe..
    http://yensamayalarai.blogspot.com/2009/08/milagu-black-pepperthattai.html

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  5. Sangeeta, my mouth is watering just looking at these....please try the baked version and share it with us!

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  6. They look so crispy and crunchy :)

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  7. looks so crispy and yummy! looks a bit like thattai, but with pepper?

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  8. hi sangeeta,
    These are called thattai. made with rice flour and roasted urad flour. Thattai for i cup of rice flour, it will be abt 2 tsp of roasted urad flour, better u can refer to shanti"s thaligai. We can add a lots of other accompaniments, with the basic flour like soaked moong or chana dal, pepper, grenn chilles etc. shantis thaligai gives the best recipe bye

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  9. @ Kalpana...it's not a vadai if i know enough about vadai :)

    @ Anonymous... i have checked the Ab site but this one is not there , it seems this is not one of their most popular items...and this blogpost about thattai is not the same thing too. It is a thattai i guess but i didn't see any thattai with cumin , black pepper , sesame , generous amount of whole grains of mung daal and asafoetida.... I am still looking for the right name and recipe....

    @ GB they really are very yummy and i am dying to have them again , and yes , i am going to bake them soon ...my version of course :)

    @ R No wonder i am so ignorant about the south Indian names of the things i love to indulge in :)

    @ Nirupama ..How wonderful your information is always ... will check with Shanti's thaligai ...i guess it is a blog . I am not good with remembering names whose meaning i don't understand :)
    May lord google help me ;)

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  10. refer shanti krishnakumars cook book, thaligai, in iyengar tamil is cooking, have u seen a poori press, u can also make thattais out of it, tarla dalal has the recipe for baked chakklis, enjoy

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  11. Thanks Nirupama...I have known this blog..see how those names make my head spin :)
    I follow one of her blogs but never came through this recipe...have posted a query there .

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  12. this looks delicious,this is new for me,..

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  13. Those are nipattus..... I love them & that reminds me of my badepapa who had encountered a funny incident at the store when he went to pick them up..... Thanks for taking me down the memory lane... :)

    Ash....
    (http://hastkala-oceancihope.blogspot.com/)

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  14. It is called 'THATTAI'in Tamil, 'NIPPATTU' in Kannada and 'PAPPU CHEKKALU' in Telugu.
    Many of blogger friends have blogged the recipe and I am sure you'd find an exact recipe you are looking for.
    some time back a recipe for BAKED NIPPATTU made waves in blogsphere (if my memory serves me right it's from REDCHILLIES.)
    All the best for your recipe search sangeeta!

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  15. Thanks Kalyani...now i know why many people are coming with different names. Will look out for the recipe you said.

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  16. Hey sangeeta,
    Appreciate your effort in trying out the savory snack u had eaten, the best part is the research that is going into getting it right, enjoyed the comments and suggestions from the fellow blogger friends :) kudos to u dear

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  17. This looks like a cross between thattai and maddur vadai:).

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  18. @ Harini ...i thought vadai was something to be had freshly made , not a dry snack like this.

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  19. I have something similar posted on my blogspot blog, my MIL makes these;

    http://sanjeetakk.blogspot.com/2010/12/crisp-snack-of-lentils-and-rice-flour.html

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  20. milagu vadai is a typical temple prasad (in tirupati or any other Balaji temple)..and yes they are very crispy compared to other type of vadais..this looks more like a thattai..the rice flour version or the north indian matri

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  21. So, is the mystery the solved yet? meanwhile, i would like to make a hybrid snack adding the spice mix you have used here to the north Indian style mathri:)

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  22. Hi sangeetha, yensamayalarai is my blog .. Thanks to anonymous . Yes it may not be popular in blog as my blog visitors are less and dont comment :( any way to tell u as I have written in the bog it was told by the person who supplies millagu thattai to anandha Bhavan in chennai. So try and c the recipe as those who have tasted have appreciated .

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  23. Thanks Ambika...i had checked out the recipe and i would have informed you after trying the recipe. In the meantime i baked something similar and it was a great snack for us....so it may take time to try the fried version of this thattai.

    And do not worry about he comments...on my blogs too less than 1% visitors comment and that's okay i guess. Though i love getting feedback .

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  24. Why don't you carry a picture to Ananda Adyar Bhavan here at Green Park and ask them? Atleast they will tell the name. Check out if they have it! Or have you solved the mystery?

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    1. Thanks Anonymous.
      Never been to the green park outlet, the mystery anyways seems to be solved with so many helping answers on this post :-)

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  25. pepper thattai!!! my fave from ananda adyar bhavan too!!!! :D

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  26. Pepper Thattai! My fave from Ananda Adyar Bhavan too!!! :D

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  27. Made them today...came out very well. Just for trial did very few, now i am confident will bake them more next week.

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