Chire Muri Bhaja / Roasted Spiced Flattened Rice and Puffed Rice

 I was elated when I saw puffed rice / muri in the breakfast isle of the supermarket. The brand was Kelloggs and they had two varieties. One was plain and one with chocolate flavour. The muri / puffed rice that we get here is little lumpy and soggy. Not crunchy like home. And so I grabbed both of the varieties (ignoring all the warnings I was receiving from my mind that it has sugar and preservatives in it) and proceeded to check out. Crunchy muri / puffed rice along with mustard oil and some sev is a frequent snack in our house. But you know what I should have listened to my mind. Because the taste of the Kellogs puffed rice is so different from the actual muri that almost half of it stayed inside the box, turned soggy, until I threw them in the trash. That one had serious sugar content it and instead of tasting something crunchy and savoury, it felt like I have dunked some sugar syrup in it. So I had to look for a way to keep the muri, that I get from the Indian grocery story crunchy. And my mother in law came to my aid.

I remembered her frying spices in a kadai and then adding the muri in it, when she came to live with us in Abidjan. She then switched off the gas and left the muri in that hot kadai for 2 minutes. The muri came out crispy like home every time. So my problem was solved but there was another part of that process that bothered me a lot. I can not fry the muri every time I want to eat. It will give me extra dishes to wash every time. So I did a big batch and kept it in a big airtight container. It stayed nice and crispy for 2 weeks. Now that was enough time for us to finish that mix and for myself to gather energy and time to make another batch. What I added though is the flattened rice / poha / chire. It gives the entire dish a nice texture and crisp. The whole thing came out like a very simple version of the jhalmuri.  And I am happy with it.

Chire Muri Bhaja / Roasted Spiced Flattened Rice and Puffed Rice

Ingredients:

200gm puffed rice / Muri / Murmura

200gm Flattened rice / poha / shire

100gm sev / chanachur

1/2 cup roasted peanuts

A handful of curry leaves

2-3 dry red chillies

Salt to taste

1 tsp ranch foron / Bengali five spices

1 tbsp ghee

Method:

Heat the kadai until warm on low to medium flame.

Add the flattened rice / char in it.

Stir and dry roast the flattened rice / char until they become crisp and start to make a husky sound while stirring. This should take around 2-3 minutes.

Now add the patch foron, broken dry red chillies and curry leaves to them.

Stir and drizzle the ghee around in small quantities.

Sprinkle the salt.

Add the sev / chanachur and roasted peanuts.

Fry for another minute or until you start to get the aroma of the red chillies and curry leaves. If you see the curry leaves has become little darker and crisp you should stop you gas then.

Add the muri / mummura to them.Mix and leave them in the warm kadai to cool down.

Once they come to room temperature put them in airtight container. They will stay fresh for 2 weeks to a month.