Fall has officially kicked in and I can already feel the temperatures dropping and nights getting cooler. I love the beginnings of the fall where everything turns the shade of orange and red, weather becomes pleasant and people get into festive mood. I love this time of the year until……the leaves start falling. That makes me gloomy. May be it’s just me but the tall trees stripped of their leaves look so sad and lonely and I can’t wait then, for spring to arrive.
What pumpkins are to Fall, Papads (pappadams) are to Marwadis. You just can’t imagine one without the other. Show me a Marwadi’s pantry and I’ll show you papads. I remember my mom making gazillion papads every summer. Rows and rows of all kinds of varieties of papad lying out in the open to dry! It used to be a week long process or sometimes even more. Initially, I started out as helper in this process….. flipping the papads so that they dried on both sides or collecting them when the dried out completely but I used to find the job of rolling out papads more fascinating and important. Finally, when I was recruited into the pivotal role of rolling out papads, I realized what an extremely tough task that was!!!! Hats off to all those women who do this for their living.
Even though it’s made with lentils and is believed to aid in the digestion process, it’s still not considered to be the most healthy food out there because of the high levels of salt and the chemical called ‘papad Khar’ in it. But once in a while, I do treat myself with this curry. Whenever I run out of vegetables or don’t have time to cook any curry, this curry comes in extremely handy. Most of the times, I make this as a curry but today I made it as a side dish to ‘ Kadhi Pakora’. There is not much difference between the curry and the dry version and both taste equally good.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp. oil
- 4 papads
- 1/4 tsp chili powder
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/4 tsp salt (only if needed, depending upon your papad)
- 1 1/2 tsp coriander powder
- 3/4 cup water
Instructions
- Break each papad into 8-9 pieces.
- Take a pan and add oil to it. Fry each piece of papad (one or two at a time) making sure they don't turn red. Keep them aside.
- To the remaining oil, add chili powder, turmeric powder and coriander powder to the oil and stir it.
- Immediately add water to it and let it come to a boil.
- Add papad pieces and let them soften up. Be gentle with the stirring while they are crisp. Add salt at this point, if needed, after tasting the dish.
- If you want it to have some gravy then switch off the flame at this moment else continue to let the water evaporate.
- If you are going to dish it right away then let it become complete dry else leave some water behind to keep the papads moist.
- Serve it hot with roti.
Notes
If you do not wish to fry the papad, apply oil on both sides of papad, using a pastry brush and roast it in microwave. (usually 40 sec to 1 min). It will affect the taste though.
Once you have prepared the curry, always keep it covered else papads will dry out.
Papads absorb water and get dry over time so dry out the water completely only few minutes before serving.
If you want to tone down on the spices, get a less spicy papad. Mine was quite nicely spiced.
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My to go recipe for lazy days ☺
I can totally relate
Can you also share a dahi gravy version of the same? Sounds yum and simple
Am sorry Divya but i never make papad sabji with dahi coz dahi gives papad a very specific taste that i dont like.