Oh my God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I looked high and low on the net one day on how to make papad and the recipes required drying in the sun and I said no way I can do this because I live in Chicago and the weather is crazy here. It is sunny one minute and stormy the next, hot one minute and cold the next and I have friends in other places complaining of weather good grief . Ok it Is everywhere and I am not alone here.
I was looking for a way of drying papad here at home and then I seen these huge papad dryers that are used in factories. I said uh uh no way is this going to work at all what so over just no way Jose.
then I kept digging because I am a stubborn kraut after all. Lol a kraut is a slang term for a German and I am not exaggerating about my stubbornness because people who know me would say so either to my face or behind my back. I used it in a good way and it paid off I found a couple of sites that has the oven drying method where you can do it at home on food.com and ehow.com I think. Just Google it like I did to find out and they are right on the money too. They are the best internet search to use ever and Bing by msn and yahoo can’t be compared to Google.
Ok since we are going to oven drying method only for this recipe and it is the easiest.
I love papad . I mean I really do. They are crispy lentil crackers and are so tasty and yummy. The ones I get at the store are so full of salt and my darling husband and I have high blood pressure. I was treated for it then I kicked all of the toxic people out of my life who are my pos immediate family I have been talking about. I had to for my own health and my own piece of mind because they are so toxic to me.
It is vital to do this because toxic people will suck the joy out of you. Shaytan has a way of using these people against you. He is a damned liar and he will suck your joy out of you.
It is true I do not want to seem I am preaching to the choir, and I have to come to grips with what has gone and is going on inside my own immediate family, besides orange is really not my color. I think you got my drift and you know pretty well what I mean. Now it is time to preheat that oven to 325 Fahrenheit or 170 Celsius.
In a mixing bowl add 4 handfuls of your choice of lentil flour or, besan which is chick pea flour, or rice flour. There are different types of lentil flour on the market because of many types of lentils and beans. I have moog ki dal flour, urad ki dal flour, moth been flour also.
If you are thinking of moths and say eeew , really this has nothing to do with an insect that nearly looks like a butterfly that eats your clothes. This is a tiny bean and go to a store selling Indian groceries and ask for these things. The sales clerk should show you where the item is or show you the item so you know next time on how to find it.
Also add 1 pinch of pink salt or kosher salt to the flour in the bowl. There are the following you can use too for the masala and you can be creative they are, 1 pinch each of caraway seeds, cumin seeds both white and black, I tiny dab each of green chili and garlic pastes and you can make the green chili and garlic paste here at home by using a food processor. I even add a pinch of hing to the batter.
I pinch of red chili powder is used too in papad too along with a tiny bit of garlic paste. It is your choice and how you feel on this matter on what you want on your papad.
I used 1/4 cup of water with 1 pinch of papad karoa mixed in little at a time until I have a stiff dough and I add either 1 tbs of either mustard oil, or coconut oil, or vegetable oil. It depends on what my taste buds are telling me but I never mix these oils. Sometimes I may use 1tbs of dalda ghee and I am not in a habit of doing so. I am kneading the dough for a good 5 minutes after I apply a tiny bit of oil or ghee. This makes dough a lot easier to handle and You can pound on it also the whole entire time also to get your frustration out.
When you are angry this is a great outlet and it beats choking someone. lol 😀 Cover the dough and let this rest for 15 minutes then come back and knead it again for another 5 minutes and shape it in to logs. If you are familiar with the process of making gniocchi then this is just like it. Gniocchi we will have to cover later but not now we are going to stay on topic this is about papad.
An easier way is to think of breadsticks and how they look. Just take a tiny piece of dough in your palms and make sure your hands are clean first and well oiled or use cooking spray on your hands and roll and shape the dough in to logs with your hands.
Now you have done it then take a knife and make small slices or pinch off tiny pieces. Cover the bowl of the remaining dough while you are doing this. I used a well oiled tortilla press for making my papad instead of my rolling pen and placed them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
I put them in my preheated oven for 10 minutes then turned it over and put it back in for another 10 minutes. they will be nice and dry then refer to the picture above this is what mine look like and this is the unroasted version and it is supposed to look like this.
I took my unroasted papapd and put it in another bowl until I got all of them done and put them away for later and roasted the ones I wanted. Keep making all of the papad in this manner until you have no more dough left. For me this is a small batch which is enough for me.
To roast a papad there are two ways. My favorite is a very hot tawa (griddle), it is my first cast iron baby and I love it half to death lol. Take one unroasted papad that is freshly made and dry roast with no oil like you do chapatti. This is great if you are watching calories even because papad can be addictive.
Also you can use a tiny bit of oil and more calories and shallow fry this way. Honestly I prefer the dry roasting because it is a lot healthier and I am not choking or gasping for breath because I am so congested.
When you have health problems you have to work around it. I know it sucks but at least I don’t make bland food. I had a favorite great aunt that had eaten a bland diet most of her life and also she had severe high blood pressure and a very bad heart so she couldn’t eat salt. She was my paternal grandmother’s sister and the only one that stuck up for me and believed in me besides my late mother. I miss them very badly even as of today.
