Papad Bhel Chat

Papadam, pronounced as poppadum; also known as Papad in Northern India or and Pappadum in the rest of South India; (spellings vary) is a thin, crisp disc-shaped Indian food typically based on a seasoned dough made from Black Gram (urad flour), fried or cooked with dry heat. Flours made from other sources such as Lentils, Chickpeas, Rice or Potatoes, can be used. Papadams are typically served as an accompaniment to a meal in India, or as an appetizer or snack, sometimes with toppings such as chopped onions, chopped carrots, chutneys or other dips and condiments In certain parts of India, papadums which have been dried but not precooked are used in curries and vegetable dishes.

Papad is often associated with the Empowerment in India. Many individual and organized businesses run by women produce papad, pickles, and other snacks.

I like Masala papad which is often served as an appetizer at many Indian Restaurants, which is basically roasted or fried papad sprinkled with chopped onions, cilantro, tomatoes with lime juice and chat masala.
Usually papad comes in pack of 10-12 in different sizes and spices, you can find them at local Indian grocers.

You can either roast it on open fire or microwave for 1 min or deep fry it to serve it with meal or as an appetizer as  described above.

I had some fried papad left over from a recent dinner party, and yesterday afternoon I had a craving for  a spicy snack.  I had heard about papad  bhel before, but had never tried it or attempted to make it before.

I had all the right ingredients this time in my pantry so I thought I will give it a try and must say it absolutely satisfied my palate with craving for spicy snack.  Here is how I made it.

Ingredients:

* 2 cups of roasted or fried papadam broken in to small pieces

* 2 cups of Bhel Sev

* 3/4 cup of Dalia (I roasted them lightly in a pan)

* 1/3 cup of Roasted salted peanuts

* 2 cups of blend of chopped red onions, green onions,  tomatoes. cilantro and one green chili

* Fresh lime juice from 2 limes

* 1 tbsp of Cayenne pepper powder

* 1 tsp of black salt (sonchar)

* 2 teaspoon of Spanish Paprika

* 1 tbsp of cumin powder

* 2 table spoon of olive oil or any vegetable cooking oil

* 1/2 cup of corn flakes I used Post Honey Bunches of Oats cereal with sliced with sliced almonds

* Salt to taste

 

Method:
* Sprinkle all the dry spices and salt on papadam pieces in a bowl.

* Add peanuts, Dalia, Corn flakes, Sev and oil and toss everything gently with wooden spoon

* Pour the mix in serving bowl, when ready to serve, add lime juice and the chopped onions/tomatoes/cilantro/chili mix.

* Garnish with some more Sev and cilantro if desire and serve with desired soft drinks or cocktails.
*Serve immediately to enjoy the crunch and avoid sogginess :) 

Yummy !!


 Enjoy :)

Source of Papadam info and image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papadum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License

Recipe and Photographs by Surekha