• Gather all the ingredients. If making rice flour at home, make sure to get it done the day before.
• Combine the lentils in a small bowl and wash them well. Add about ½ cup of water and cook them in the pressure cooker or Instant Pot until soft and mushy. I cooked it on manual mode for about 12 minutes in the Instant Pot.
  1 Tablespoon Chana dal / kadalai paruppu, 1 Tablespoon Moong dal / payatham paruppu, 1 Tablespoon Urad dal / ullutham paruppu
• Once the lentils are cooked, remove them and mash them well. If you find excess water in the cooked lentil, drain it before mashing. Keep the excess water aside and we will use it when making the thattai dough.

Making the dough for button thattai

• In a wide bowl, add the rice flour, cooked and mashed lentils, spices, butter, sesame seeds, curry leaves, and grated coconut along with the salt needed.
  1 cup Rice flour, 2 Tablespoon Grated coconut, 1 teaspoon sesame seeds, few Curry leaves, ½ Tablespoon Butter, 1 teaspoon Red chili powder, ¼ teaspoon Asafetida, To taste Salt
• Mix it well incorporating all the ingredients with your fingers. Now sprinkle water very slowly and make a stiff thattai dough. Use the saved water from cooking lentils (if you have any).
• Cover the dough with a kitchen cloth until we heat oil to deep fry the kara kara mini thattais.
• Since these mini thattais are a little time-consuming to shape (and we make a ton of them since they are tiny), I like to shape enough to fry for a couple of batches before I start frying.

Shaping the button thattai

• Make small balls from the thattai dough.
• Layer a piece of parchment paper or a thick plastic paper on the countertop. Place the shaped balls on them leaving enough space between the balls to spread.
• Now place another piece of parchment paper (or plastic) on top of the shaped balls.
• Use a small flat bowl to gently press on each ball to flatten them. Make sure to flatten them evenly on all sides and also try to keep them the same size and thickness. I like it not too thin and not too thick.
• Repeat with all the balls on the sheet and then slowly transfer the shaped thattai discs onto a clean kitchen cloth. I like using dhoti cloth/veshti to place the thattai disc.
• Air drying them for a few minutes helps take the extra moisture from the dough and in turn the thattais comes out crispy and also absorbs less oil when frying.
• Make 3 or 4 batches of thattai discs before beginning to fry them.

Frying the mini thattais

• When the oil is hot, reduce the heat to medium and then slowly start sliding the shaped discs into the oil. Depending on the size of the frying pan, add about 8 to 10 mini thattais into the oil. Do not overcrowd.
  Oil
• Make sure to fry them on medium heat until the button thattais are golden brown on both sides.
• Remove the kara kara thattai on a paper towel-lined bowl.
• Let them cool well before transferring to an airtight container.