Papad Parathas

Papads or Poppadums are a favourite Indian meal accompaniment - and are eaten either before meals as an appetizer, or with meals (especially with rice) as a savoury spicy side or even after meals as a sort of a mouth-cleaner and mouth freshener, which is what the original purpose was.

In many parts of India and in many families (including mine!), papad eating is almost an obsession and a must-have with every meal. Papads come in almost as many varieties as there are spices - plus the variations on dough, thickness and amount of moisture remaining.

And they can be preapred in various ways - fried or roasted or even boiled and put into a gravy - and just plain or with any number of toppings - oil, ghee, onions, chilli, cumin, coriander leaves, lemon juice and so on.

Here is a rather unconventional papad based recipe. We had these Parathas with a spicy pinepapple salsa (recipe in the next post).My husband is a big papad fan, and was absolutely thrilled by the recipe.

Ingredients

For Papad Churi
2 - papad, roasted
2 tsp - sunflower oil
1/2 tsp - cumin powder
1 tsp -  red chilli powder (adjust according to your taste)
1/2 tsp - chaat masala powder

Crush the roasted papads into fine pieces with hand, add the oil and the spices and mix well.

For the dough
1 cup - whole wheat flour
water to knead
a pinch of salt
a little ghee to brush the dough
a little ghee to roast the parathas


Method 

1. Add the flour and salt in a pan, add water and knead into a soft but managable dough. Brush the dough with a little ghee and knead again for a minute. Cover with a moist muslin cloth and keep aside for half an hour.
2. Divide the dough into 4 parts and shape each into a ball and slightly flatten them. Add the papad churi in the center and seal the ball.Roll these balls into parathas.
3. Roast the paratha on both sides on a non stick pan, brushing a little ghee on each sides until brown spots appear on the surface.
4. Serve hot. We had these parathas with a spicy pineapple salsa.

Makes 4

The Crunchy taste even after roasting the Parathas adds a special zing !

The rather unusal combination of papad n pineapple turned out to be a big hit.

This goes to Srilekha's  EFM Parathas and Gravies/Curries Series 

Enjoy!