Khichiya Papad

I love eating at roadside dhabas. In particular, I love eating at this dhaba called Kathiyawad ne Angane, which falls en route Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway, just a couple of meters after the Bhayandar bridge. The best thing about this place is their simplicity. No frills, no decorations, just lovely delicious food. Their bajra no rotlo is to die for. Amply slathered with ghee, this rotlo is soft, and tastes great with their sev kanda tameta nu shaak, or lasaniya bateta. They serve you freshly made maakhan with sugar as their dessert and no Kutchchi meal is complete without a bottle of chilled buttermilk.

I had this papad here for the first time, and I have yet to get over the taste. It is crisp, but the crispiness can't be measured with the yardstick of crispiness of regular papads. This one has crunch, and a mild taste. A taste that tingles on your tongue, and delights your teeth. I was craving these for a while. Now that it is the peak of summer here in India, and by that virtue, time for pickles and papads and the likes, I decided to try and see if I could make them.

I found a good recipe on youtube by Bhavana.  I tried following the same step by step.

Here's what I did.

What you'll need

• 1 and 1/2 cups rice flour
• 1 and 1/2 cups water
• 3 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp ajwain seeds
• 3 tsp green chilli paste
• 2 tsp papad khaar (you can find it at your local grocery store)
• salt to taste

Boil the water and to it, add all the ingredients except the rice flour. Add salt a little less than you would normally use. You can taste the dough later to determine if you need more. I think you should keep the salt a wee bit on the low side, because as the papad dries, it becomes saltier. 

Once the water boils, take it off the heat, and pour it slowly into the rice flour and mix it. Knead the dough a bit, and then shape into medium sized balls. Flatten them a bit with the palms of your hand and  make a hole in the center. You can use a bit of cold water on your palms if the dough gets too sticky.

Steam the dough balls in a steamer for about 30 minutes. Remove them from the steamer while they are hot and knead them with the help of a steel glass.

Now using a little oil on your palms, make small balls out of the dough and roll them thin with a rolling pin. Be very gentle, you don't want the papads to tear. But make them as thin as possible.

Place them on a plastic sheet and keep the plastic sheet under direct sunlight so that the papads dry completely. This make take about 2 to 3 days. Make sure that the papads are completely dry.

You can store these papads in an airtight container for about a year.

Whenever you want to eat them, just remove as many as you want, and deep fry them in oil and serve!

Happy cooking!