Heat a pan with oil, enough to fry 3 -4 at time, if you conscious of not using too much oil. Simmer once it gets hot. The temperature should not be smoking hot. Grease your fingers with oil and pinch out a small lemon size ball and roll between your palms to form a thick rope.

My Notes :

This is were I faced my first challenge. My ropes were pretty fragile (not falling apart as such) but the ends broke quite easily. I realized it could be because I was using Store bought Rice flour instead of the traditional way of grinding them at home! sigh!.  I dunno the science behind this tip, but I simply added few tsps of the hot oil (which I was going to use for frying) to my dough and kneaded them some more.  After that, I did not face an issue.

Bring the two ends to together and press to form a rope. Ensure the ends are firmly pressed as not to give out during frying.

My Notes:

The size and shape of these do not really matter that much. I remember the ones that I have enjoyed had very small holes in the middle. Hence chose to make half of the dough that way.

My Notes: But I saw from Google Images that many pictures depicted a bigger and a thinner round for Chekodi.  Hence felt that may be they were traditionally made that way in Andhra - So made the other half of the dough aping the real version. Just roll out a thinner and longer rope and bring the ends together to make a bigger  ring murukkus.

and cook till you get a golden colour on the chakodis.

My Notes:

If you notice from this picture below, the surface of my chekodi don't look that smooth. They were very crunchy yes and tastewise perfect. But as far as the looks department go, they did not have a smooth surface. I think this could be because of the store bought rice flour. But after I followed the tip I provided before - that is kneaded the dough for few more minutes with hot oil, it became smooth