Papad / Papadam / Papod / Poppadom

[Suvir Saran]

Has anyone tried making the papads at home?

Just curious.

[jackal10]

yes.

I also made prawn crackers but with Nori in them. Excellent.

Obviously not as uniform and a bit thicker than the machine made ones, but much more flavoursome.

JL

[Suvir Saran]

yes.

I also made prawn crackers but with Nori in them. Excellent.

Obviously not as uniform and a bit thicker than the machine made ones, but much more flavoursome.

JL

WOW! Inspirational!

How much time did you take?

[A Scottish Chef]

WOW!  Inspirational! 

How much time did you take?

Suvir, I'd meant to ask this before - a wee while ago I watched a documentary on a travel programme about regional variations in Inidian cuisine. The programme was fronted by a very beautiful American woman of Indian heritage. In one of the regions (Hyderabad?) she took a look at the hand made popadom industry.

There were hundreds of women involved in the creation of popadoms. They would collect the dough daily from the same place they returned the finished items to sell. It was amazing to witness as there were literally thousands upon thousands of the popadoms being made very day by these women.

What I wanted to know was this: is the flavour of these hand made, sun dried popadoms so very different from the factory produced ones I would typically buy?

Also, I have noticed on the ones I buy that they are made from Urid flour? What is this? Does it have another name I would perhaps know better? Why is this flour used for popadoms in factories, and is it the same material the women would have used?

[jackal10]

For the prawn crackers in about a week:

8 oz/225g/1 cup Tapioca flour

8oz/225g/1 cup large shrimp (shelled), whizzed in food blender. I guess any flavouring would work here.

2 large sheets Nori, toasted

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground white pepper

1/2 cup water

Bring water, salt, pepper to the boil. Pour onto tapicoa flour, stir quickly

Add the minced shrimp and Nori. Knead to firm dough (may need moe water)

Form into cylinder anout 1 inch in diameter. Wrap in muslin or cheesecloth and steam for 45 minutes.

Remove cloth and cool on a rack. Re-wrap, and put in the fridge for 3 days to mature and dry out some.

After 3 days unwrap and slice into very thin slices with a sharp knife. Put on a baking sheet on silicon paper and put into the lowest possible (plate warming) oven for 12 hours, turning occaisionally to dry more.

Put into sealed container for another day to let the moisture even out.

Drop into hot oil for 30 seconds to expand

Let me know how they work for you.

Apparently you can use 50/50 fine semolina and rice flour instead of tapioca.

[Suvir Saran]

WOW!  Inspirational! 

How much time did you take?

Suvir, I'd meant to ask this before - a wee while ago I watched a documentary on a travel programme about regional variations in Inidian cuisine. The programme was fronted by a very beautiful American woman of Indian heritage. In one of the regions (Hyderabad?) she took a look at the hand made popadom industry.

There were hundreds of women involved in the creation of popadoms. They would collect the dough daily from the same place they returned the finished items to sell. It was amazing to witness as there were literally thousands upon thousands of the popadoms being made very day by these women.

What I wanted to know was this: is the flavour of these hand made, sun dried popadoms so very different from the factory produced ones I would typically buy?

Also, I have noticed on the ones I buy that they are made from Urid flour? What is this? Does it have another name I would perhaps know better? Why is this flour used for popadoms in factories, and is it the same material the women would have used?

The company may be Lijjat Papad. I am told it is run by women.

Urad Dal is the same as the black beans that are famous in India and also in Mexican cooking. But the urad dal we use is the peeled, split black lentil. The flour of these split and peeled black beans is used in the making of papad.

Papad in India are still made in the cottage industry level. So most are sun dried and hardly ever see any big factory production.

The flour would change from region to region and also from mill to mill. Depending on where they are milled, the coarseness of the flour will change. And that will alter the papad.

Does any of this make sense?

[A Scottish Chef]

Does any of this make sense?

A ever, perfect sense. Thank you once again, Suvir, for your clarity and willingness to help and inform.

You are a gem

[indiagirl]

and yes, it is lijjat papad. they run it like a "cottage" industry and provide thousands of women who could not work because of familial or social constraints with employment, an income and therefore, in some cases, much needed independence.

many years ago, there was a scandal of some kind that i vaguely recall, related to the hygiene aspects of food created in unknown surroundings and now there is more quality control associated with it. there are even some women run community centers where women can come with their kids and make papads for a few hours a day.

my mother's family always made papads at him and watching the pandit (the cook, but more) rolling them out until the dough was almost translucent would keep me hypnotized for hours.

i think sun dried ones taste better than factory dried ones but that may just eb nostalgia

:)

i think the only downside of papads from indian stores are that they are not fresh - yes, i know that is a strange notion when talking about a dried food but i 'm still sticking to it .... i sometimes get blah papads from the store here and i think it's because they have been sitting on some shelf for years ....

vanessa, sometimes when papads are fried without a focus on the shape (flatness) it becomes very difficult to drain the oil since it pools in the little cavities created by the odd shapes. perhaps, that is why yours felt extra oily?

rich, the longer spelling poppadum - is from the south of india, the shorter ones are from the north. rice papads are vaery popular in the south.

[Suvir Saran]

i think the only downside of papads from indian stores are that they are not fresh -  yes, i know that is a strange notion when talking about a dried food but i 'm still sticking to it .... i sometimes get blah papads from the store here and i think it's because they have been sitting on some shelf for years ....

How very true!

Fresh papad are far better. I have to agree I feel disappointed and cheated after buying Papad in the US. They are not the same. I am sure the long shelf life must do something.