Thattai

Thattai is an authentic and traditional SouthIndian crispy snack. We make thattai for many festivals like Krishna Jayanthi or even for a regular evening snack. This can be with just Rice flour and Urad dal flour well within 30 minutes.

Tips for making Thattai:

1. Rice Flour : 

• Homemade Rice flour is the most recommended option. Home made rice flour will yield better texture and taste than store bought.
• We can use store bought plain rice flour for making thattai. We can also use idiappam or kozhukattai flour too.
• Being homemade or store bought, the rice has to be roasted till warm. The consistency is called “Kolamavu padham” in tamil. If you take a pinch of rice flour and try to draw a line or rangoli, you should be able to do. If that is achieved then we can stop roasting rice flour.

2. Urad Dal Flour:

• Store bought urad dal flour cannot be used for thattai or any bakshanam. Store bought urad dal flour is not roasted flour. So will not work properly
• To prepare urad dal flour, dry roast urad dal till it’s very hot to handle. We don’t need to roast till red/golden color.
• Grind urad dal to smooth powder. Sieve the flour twice to get rid off any lumps or coarse flour. We need perfectly smooth flour.
• We fried 1/4 cup of urad dal but we just need 1/2 tbsp of urad dal flour for 1 cup of rice flour. We can’t grind very small quantity in mixer grinder so take atleast 1/4 cup of urad dal so that we will get a smooth urad dal flour.
• Store the rest of the urad flour in an air-tight container and use it whenever you are planning to some snacks like thenkuzhal, seedai, thattai etc

3. Butter:

• For 1 cup of rice flour, we can use 1 tbsp of butter. Butter should be soften at room temperature. Do not use chilled butter.
• We can also use ghee instead of butter, but ghee gives a dark color to the thattai.
• Do not increase the butter quantity as it will make the thattai brittle or soggy sometimes.

4. Crunchy bits

• I have used roasted gram to the rice flour to get a nice crunch when we take a bite of thattai.
• Instead of roasted gram, we can soak chana dal (Kadala Paruppu) for about 30 mins.  Then drain the water and add the soaked dal to the rice flour.
• We can also add white sesame seeds  to the rice flour.
• Also we can finely chop the coconut and add the coconut bits to the rice flour.

5. Dough Consistency:

• The thattai dough consistency should be soft and smooth. If the dough is very stiff, when we shape thattai, there will be lots of cracks. So always knead it to smooth dough.
• Always keep the dough covered. When you are taking a gooseberry size dough and flattening it to make thattai cover the rest of the dough with a damp cloth or with a lid.
• If the dough becomes dry, sprinkle water and knead the dough again.

6. Deep Frying:

• Test the hotness of the oil before dropping the shaped thattai in oil. If the oil is not hot enough, then the thattai will absorb more oil.
• Drop a pinch of dough and check if the dough raises immediately, then the oil is ready.
• Add 2-3 thattai in one batch. If you are deep frying in a broad heavy bottomed pan with more oil then you can add 4-5.
• Do not over crowd the thattai in oil. Give them space to get fried.
• Deep fry in low flame till its golden brown on both the sides and the bubbles ceases completely.

7. Storing

• Allow the fried thattai to cool off completely.
• Also place the fried thattai in an air-tight container to have longer shelf life.

Recipe Card to make Thattai

Pin Recipe

Thattai Recipe | How to make Thattai

Course: Snacks

Cuisine: Indian, Tamil Brahmin, Tamil Nadu Recipes, Tamilnadu

Equipments Needed

• Heavy Bottomed Pan
• Mixer Grinder
• Mixing Bowl

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 15 thattai

Calories: 100kcal

Author: Sowmya Venkatachalam

Thattai is a South Indian snack traditionally made during Krishna Jeyanthi, Diwali and also for Karthigai Deepam. If we have rice flour and urad dal flour, then we can make this thattai very easily and quickly. A great tea time snack too! Learn here how to make this thattai with step by step pictures, video and instructions.

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 cup Rice Flour
• ▢ ½ tbsp Urad Dal Flour
• ▢ 1 tsp Red Chili Powder
• ▢ ¼ tsp Asafoetida (Asafetida / Hing)
• ▢ ¾ tsp Salt As Needed
• ▢ 2 tbsp Roasted Gram Dal (Pottukadalai / Dhaliya)
• ▢ Few Curry Leaves
• ▢ 3 Cups Oil For Frying
• ▢ 1 tbsp Butter

Instructions 

Preparing Urad Dal Flour

• ▢
  Dry roast urad dal till the dal is hot. If we touch the dal, we should feel very much heat and drop the dal immediately. That is the right stage to swtich off the flame. We don't need to fry dal till it changes color.
• ▢
  Take the roasted urad dal in a mixer. Grind it to smooth powder.
• ▢
  Add the urad dal flour in a sieve. Sieve thorougly to get rid of any lumps or coarse flour. Set this urad dal flour aside.

Dry Roasting Rice Flour

• ▢
  Add 1 cup of rice flour in a heavy bottomed pan. Dry roast rice flour till its warm. If you take a pinch of rice flour you should be able to draw a line. Thats the right consistency.

Dough Preparation

• ▢
  Take a pan, add rice flour, 1/2 tbsp of ground urad dal flour, salt, red chilli powder, hing, curry leaves, roasted gram, butter and mix it well. Sprinkle water and mix all these ingredients to make it a thick dough.

Making of Thattai

• ▢
  Take a zipper paper, spread oil in the paper, make small ball of the flour, and keep it in paper. Grease the palm with oil and press the ball to flatten it. Make the patties really thin and prick each thattai with a fork or a tooth pick in many places. Pricking makes the oil penetrates to the inner portion of the thattai and cooks the inner portion well. If the inner portion of thattai is now cooked, then the thattai will be chewy. Also if you miss the pricking, then sometimes, the thattai will become like a poori. So pricking is an important step.
• ▢
  We can also use a bowl and press the dough ball to make a thin equal size thattai.

Deep Frying Process

• ▢
  Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Slowly turn the zipper over your palm. The greased plastic will enable flattened thattai to slip on your hands easily. Gently drop 2-3 flattened thattai in oil.
• ▢
  Keep the flame low and allow the thattai to get fried.
• ▢
  Turn them to cook evenly until golden yellow/ deep brown. Allow the thattai to cook till all the bubbles ceases and also keep the flame in medium till the thattai is cooked completely. Drop them on a paper towel to drain excess oil. Once cooled, store them in an air tight container.

Serving Time

• ▢
  The delicious Thattai is ready for neivedhyam and for serving.

Video

Notes

• Instead of Roasted Gram Dal (Pottukadalai / Dhaliya) you can also use Channa Dal. Soak Channa Dal for about 2 hours and then add it to the thattai. 

Nutritional Info

Nutrition Facts

Thattai Recipe | How to make Thattai

Amount Per Serving (1 Thattai)

Calories 100 Calories from Fat 45

% Daily Value*

Fat 5g8%

Carbohydrates 10g3%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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INSTRUCTIONS WITH STEP BY STEP PICTURES:

PREPARING URAD DAL FLOUR

• Dry roast urad dal till the dal is hot. If we touch the dal, the dal should be fry hot to handle. That is the right stage to swtich off the flame. We don’t need to fry dal till it changes color.

• Take the roasted urad dal in a mixer. Grind it to smooth powder.

• Add the urad dal flour in a sieve. Sieve thorougly to get rid of any lumps or coarse flour. Set this urad dal flour aside.

DRY ROASTING RICE FLOUR

• Add 1 cup of rice flour in a heavy bottomed pan. Dry roast rice flour till its warm. If you take a pinch of rice flour you should be able to draw a line. Thats the right consistency.

DOUGH PREPARATION

• Take a pan, add rice flour, 1/2 tbsp of ground urad dal flour, salt, red chilli powder, hing, curry leaves, roasted gram, butter and mix it well.

• Sprinkle water and mix all these ingredients to make it a thick dough.

MAKING OF THATTAI 

• Take a zipper paper, spread oil in the paper, make small ball of the flour, and keep it in paper. Grease the palm with oil and press the ball to flatten it. Make the patties really thin.

• We can also use a bowl and press the dough ball to make a thin equal size thattai.

• Prick each thattai with a fork or a tooth pick in many places. Pricking makes the oil penetrates to the inner portion of the thattai and cooks the inner portion well. If the inner portion of thattai is now cooked, then the thattai will be chewy. Also if you miss the pricking, then sometimes, the thattai will become like a poori. So pricking is an important step.

DEEP FRYING PROCESS

• Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Slowly turn the zipper over your palm. The greased plastic will enable flattened thattai to slip on your hands easily. Gently drop 2-3 flattened thattai in oil.

• Keep the flame low and allow the thattai to get fried. Turn them to cook evenly until golden yellow/ deep brown. Allow the thattai to cook till all the bubbles ceases and also keep the flame in medium till the thattai is cooked completely. Drop them on a paper towel to drain excess oil. Once cooled, store them in an air tight container.

SERVING TIME

• The delicious Thattai is ready for neivedhyam and for serving.

Sowmya Venkatachalam

IT Engineer turned full time Food Blogger. I ♡ FOOD. I also love food blogging. Did you make a recipe? Tag @Subbusktichen on Instagram. I WANNA SEE!