What is Papad?
A papad, also known as a papadum is a thin Indian cracker-like flatbread made from gram flour and seasoned with a few spices. The papad is fried in oil and puffs up into a thin, wide and, round crinkled cracker. This tan-cream colored snack is savory, salty and often served as a side dish or appetizer.
Ingredients
Vegetable oil is obtained by extracting oil from seeds. Types of vegetable oil include canola, sunflower, corn, and safflower. Light and with a neutral taste, vegetable oils are used to fry foods, or can be used to lightly coat meats and vegetables before roasting. Vegetable oils are also used as ingredients in salad dressings and sauces.
Gram flour, also called chickpea flour is used in many Indian recipes and is made from the ground chickpea, called chana dal in Hindi. The flour has a higher protein content than many flours milled from grain. A creamy yellow is a notable aspect of gram flour, which has a fine and soft texture. Gram flour is used to make desserts, breads and crackers. Chickpea flour can be found in other cuisines, including an Italian flatbread called socca.
Salt is a mineral composed mostly of sodium chloride. It is the main flavoring used in food and is naturally occurring in certain foods, such as cheese, beets, meat and celery, plus many others. Salt is white and has finer granules than sugar. Many commercial salts include iodide, while others exclude it. Most salts are white, while some are naturally pale pink with minerals. Salt brings out the flavor of something and can create a tangy mouthfeel, if used in excess.
There are many varieties of chili peppers. They are a small, hot pepper. The pepper is dried and ground into a fine powder, that varies in shades of red. Chili powder is a spice blend popular in American and Latin-American cooking. It is usually made from ancho chilies, paprika, oregano and cumin, other spices may be added. It is used in many protein dishes and has a spicy and herbal flavor.
Ginger paste is made by blending the ginger root with water and salt to form a smooth paste. This paste is yellow/golden and tastes like ginger, with the sharp, spicy and earthy flavors that are characteristic of the root. Ginger paste is used in many cuisines including East and South Asian and Western dishes. It blends well into sauce and rubs and can be used for many culinary purposes to add flavor.
Garlic paste is a convenient form of garlic used in cooking and as a condiment. It is made from peeled cloves of garlic that are thoroughly blended together to form a smooth, thick white paste. The concentration of garlic paste is exceptionally strong and has a spicy, pungent and bright flavor. Garlic paste may have additional ingredients, such as salt and oil. It is popular in Mediterranean cuisines.
Turmeric is the root of a flowering plant and is used as a spice. The root is woody, but easy to cut and looks similar to ginger. Rather than growing in clusters, each root is a several or so inches long, cylindrical and 1 or more inches in diameter. The thin skin is a brownish-orange and protects the inner root which is bright orange, like a carrot. Turmeric dyes everything it touches and leaves a golden color. The flavor is earthy, pungent and slightly bitter. It has numerous uses, including flavoring and coloring food.
