What does Urad Dal Papad Taste Like?
Salty is one of the five main tastes. It has a satisfying and addictive quality with hints of sourness. Salty foods include cheeses, cured meats, chips, and olives. It is used in almost every dish and prepared food. Salt is added to enhance flavor and offer a distinctly salty taste.
Spicy is a flavor that brings heat and fire to food by creating a burning sensation in the mouth or sinuses. Spicy flavors come from hot peppers, horseradish, and wasabi. Spicy adds a kick and sometimes complexity to a dish and releases endorphins, creating a mildly addictive quality.
Ingredients
Yellow Urad Dal, also called yellow lentils are type of legume. The legume is hulled and split in half, so that one side of the tiny lentil is flat and the other is domed. Yellow urad dal is hard when dry, once cooked it becomes soft and has a texture that is both meaty and starchy. The flavor is mild, nutty and somewhat bland on its own. For this reason it pairs well with spices and seasonings.
Moong dal, or mung beans are a type of lentil. Dal refers to the bean being split in half, so unlike whole mung beans, moong dal is flat on one side of its green or yellow body and rounded on the other. Moong dal is small, lentil sized and hard until cooked. Cooked moong dal is soft, a little starchy and meaty in texture and has a flavor that is nutty, green and somewhat bland. Moong dal tastes best when cooked with seasonings. It is a popular food item in India and can be found in dishes from savory to sweet.
Papad khar is an ingredient made from sodium bicarbonate and is used to make the crispy Indian cracker called pappadams. Papad khar helps add a crispness and expansion to the pappadam. It is used in other foods as well, and is a white and powdery substance.
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.
The peppercorn plant grows in tropical climate and produces tiny black fruit. The fruit is dried and become hard. At this point it is ground into a textured powder comprised of black and grey dots. It has a flavor that is spicy, pungent and sharp. Pepper is an extremely popular spice, especially in Western cuisines and lends a gentle heat to dishes. There are different varieties of black pepper and the flavor changes subtly because of this.
Peanut oil is a cooking oil made from the the peanut, a member of the pea plant family. The peanut has a high oil/fat content making it a good oil source. Peanut oil is thin, golden and translucent. Its flavor is nutty and a bit sweet. It has a high smoke point making it good for frying food items. Peanut oil is used in East Asian cuisine and also in America for its convenience and relatively cost effective price.
Additives are added to food items in small quantities to improve the flavor, change the texture, enhance appearance, or preserve the item. Additives are both natural and artificial. Natural additives have been used for a long time, while many artificial ones were discovered in the 19th century. There are numerous artificial additives including soy lecithin, guar gum, ascorbic acid and sodium nitrite.
Asafoetida is a spice, commonly used in Indian cuisine. Asafoetida is sold as a powder and sometimes as a paste. Its smell is pungent and and its color is a pale yellow. The flavor lends to dishes and creates a satisfying taste that is similar to the effect that garlic and onions give in boosting the flavor of a dish.
