Papad

Paper-thin sun-dried discs of black gram dough seasoned with cracked pepper and cumin, flame-roasted until blistered and crisp

Origin: Bombay & the Deccan, India

From the journey of Black Gram.

A papad is a wafer of black gram dough rolled so thin that light shows through it, dried in the sun, and then roasted over a naked flame or dropped into hot oil for a few seconds, when it blisters, curls, and turns crisp. It is set beside dal and rice, broken over the plate, and eaten with nearly every meal somewhere in South Asia. Tamil Nadu calls it appalam, Kerala pappadam, Karnataka happala, and Andhra appadam, and English took it from the south as poppadom. It is very old. The food historian K. T. Achaya placed the first written mentions of parpaṭa, the Sanskrit name, in Buddhist and Jain canonical texts of about the fifth century BCE. The method has hardly changed since, because black gram is the right pulse for it: its dough is unusually stretchy and cohesive when kneaded with an alkaline salt, and it can be rolled almost to nothing without tearing. The papad also has a famous modern story. On 15 March 1959, seven Gujarati women on a terrace in Girgaum, in Bombay, borrowed eighty rupees from the social worker Chhaganlal Karamsi Parekh to buy the ingredients for a first batch of four packets. Their cooperative, Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad, is owned and run by its women members and grew into one of the best-known food brands in India. In 2021 one of the founders, Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat, was awarded the Padma Shri. Most households now buy papad rather than make it, but homemade papad, dried on a clean cloth on the roof in the hot months, is still a summer task in many Indian homes.

Ingredients

  • 250 g urad dal flour (fine black gram flour)
  • 1 tsp papad khar, or 0.75 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp fine salt
  • 1 tsp black peppercorns, coarsely crushed
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds, lightly crushed
  • 0.25 tsp asafoetida
  • 100 ml water, approximately
  • 2 tbsp neutral oil, for kneading and rolling

Method

  1. Dissolve the papad khar or bicarbonate of soda and the salt in the water. Mix the flour, pepper, cumin, and asafoetida in a bowl, add the water a little at a time, and bring it together into a very stiff dough.
  2. Oil your hands and knead the dough hard for five minutes, then pound it with a pestle or rolling pin for another five, folding it over on itself as you go, until it is smooth, pliable, and slightly glossy.
  3. Roll the dough into a long rope and cut it into 20 small pieces. Keep them covered with an oiled cloth.
  4. Rub a little oil on the rolling pin and board and roll each piece into a disc about 12 cm across, as thin as you can make it.
  5. Lay the discs in a single layer on a clean cloth or plastic sheet and dry them in the sun for one to two days, turning once, until completely brittle.
  6. To serve, hold a papad with tongs over a gas flame, turning constantly, for 20 to 30 seconds until blistered all over, or fry it for three to four seconds in very hot oil until it expands.

Notes

Papad khar is the alkaline salt sold for papad-making in Indian grocers; bicarbonate of soda is the usual substitute. Dried papad keeps for months in an airtight tin. Roast or fry only immediately before eating, as it softens within the hour. For masala papad, top a roasted papad with finely chopped onion, tomato, green chilli, coriander, a squeeze of lime, and chaat masala, and eat it at once.

The Gastrographer

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