From eximius@lineone.net Wed Feb 13 16:06:25 2002 Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 18:26:07 GMT From: "Raymond M. Harris" Newsgroups: uk.food+drink.indian Subject: Re: Poppadoms "Anne-Marie Maltby" had been waiting ages for a poppadom recipe, when, all of a sudden, two more arrived: Paparhs - Puppadums made with Dal Urhad or Red Lentil Flour ------------ 200g / 0.5lb fine dal urhad or red lentil flour 1 level dessertspoonful baking powder 1 tsp caraway seeds 1 tsp crushed cardomom seeds half a teacupful warm water 1 tsp salt 1 tsp or more of crushed (not ground) black pepper 1 tsp chilli powder 2 tbsp , or more, of edible oil or warm fat For 15 paparhs. First set aside about a dessertspoonful of the flour for use later on, then place the remainder of the flour in a mixing bowl, and add salt. Mix the baking powder in the water (in India we use a kind of cooking soda), and gradually add this to the flour, and mix into a stiff dough. Place this dough on a bread-board, pound it vigorously with a pestle for 15 minutes, using generous dabs of edible oil to prevent sticking. The expert paparh makers bang the dough on the board as if threshing corn. Mix in the spices, chilli powder, etc., and pound once again. Indeed, the more you pound it, the lighter will be the paparhs. Shape the whole of the dough into a long sausage, then cut into small portions. Place these and the remainder of the flour in a bowl, and get them well covered with the flour. How to shape the paparhs: Take a portion of the flour- covered dough, grease it slightly, and shape it round. Then roll it out as thin and round as possible (very thin indeed), using more oil if necessary. Roll out the rest of the portions likewise, place them all separately on a large cake rack, and dry them in the sun or in a hot cupboard. They will only take a few hours to dry, and should not be kept in the cupboard too long. They will always have a shiny, greasy surface, and should be stored in a covered tin. Paparhs can be baked slowly on both sides on a gas ring (of course, a charcoal fire is best), or they can be fried in smoking oil or fat. They are crisp and crunchy, and are served with drinks, with main meals, or at tea-time. They can be made quite plain, i.e. you can leave out the spices if not wanted. Paparh making is an art in itself, and needs a lot of practice to get perfect results, but is certainly worth trying. Paparh Sagudana - Puppadums made with Sago ------------------------- 200g / 0.5lb sago 0.5 tsp ground pepper (black or white) 1.5 tsp salt 852ml / 1.5pts water For 32 puppadums: Wash the sago in cold water once or twice, drain it well. Bring the water to boil in a large, heavy aluminium saucepan (? Think I'd prefer stainless steel myself) , and stir in the well-washed sago. Add salt and pepper, and cook slowly for 15 minutes, stirring all the time. The sago should by now be cooked and swollen, and can be removed from the heat. Arrange a clean cloth on a large tray, and spread a heaped tbsp of the mixture in a thin round shape on the cloth. Repeat the process until all the mixture is used. Dry these in the same way as described in the previous recipe; but they take much longer to dry, and should be carefully unstuck from the cloth before really dry. If they do get stuck, dampen the cloth from the back, and gently persuade them from it. They must be thoroughly dry before storing. Apart from this, they are very easy to make, and are fried in deep smoking fat just before serving. They are very light and crisp, and attractive looking; and are great favourites with children. From 'Indian Cooking' by Savitri Chowdhary (Pan Books Ltd., 5th printing 1979, ISBN 0 330 26078 2) Ought to keep you busy for a while. Cheers, Ray