Transcript
Today we're going to make papdi no lot,
a lot or “khichu,” as many people call it.
This is a beloved,
absolutely beloved snack
in many, many, many Gujarati homes.
It's basically just rice flour
with some spices,
green chilies, cumin,
carom seeds or ajmo
and salt,
and it's just kind of steamed together
into this delicious,
chewy and soft, very mochi like texture.
It's savory and it's spicy.
And it's just so, so good.
One thing I recently found out
my family has been making papdi no lot
my entire life.
My aunt is our popular expert,
but I recently found out
My aunt in my home is our papdi no lot expert,
but I recently found out
that one of the main ingredients
in papdi no lot
is what we call papad kharo
is potentially unsafe
and potentially toxic.
It is sodium benzoate
and it can convert,
it can react with acid and high
temperatures and convert into benzene,
which is problematic.
And so I wanted to figure out a way
to make papdi no lot in a way that's safer.
And so I experimented several times
and found a way to make it with baking
soda that works perfectly
and you can't tell the difference.
So let me share the recipe of papdi
no lot by boiling two cups of water.
Add the cumin seeds.
The carom seeds, or ajmo, salt
and green chili paste
and bring this to a rolling boil.
Now that the water is at a rolling boil,
I'm going to add the red chili powder.
I don't add this before
because it can vaporize
the chili
and cause everyone in the house to cough.
Add the baking soda,
give it one quick stir,
and then add the rice flour,
lower the heat
and mix to combine.
Make sure you're using a sturdy silicone
spatula.
Traditionally, my family would use a
valan -- a Gujarati, thin rolling pin.
But I find that using a sturdy
silicone spatula
saves you the step of kneading the dough
while it's really hot because the silicone
spatula does the work for you.
Okay, Now that it's
mostly well combined on low heat
mash this together for 1 to 2 minutes
until it is a smooth mixture.
So just kind of
pull it along the surface of the pan
and take out any of those little clumps.
And knots that you see in the dough
and just knead for about a minute or so.
Sometimes
you might need a little more, but
you'll see that it'll start to pull away
from the pan
and clump together and form a dough,
as you can
see now. So
okay, now you can see
it is turned into a much smoother dough.
Now we can turn the heat off
and transfer the dough to a bowl
and cover
and let rest for at least 30 minutes.
So papdi no lot,
the dough, has rested for about an hour.
And I will show you what it looks like.
It’s nice and soft.
It's nice and doughy.
It's perfect.
I'm going to put this aside.
I have a steamer basket
put on a plate
and I like to use my hands to grease
the steamer basket because I'm going to
use my hands to shape the papdi no lot.
So this just helps to help
get the oil on my hands already.
Go set this aside
and you can make your papdi no lot
rings or donuts any size you like.
I like to use two tablespoons.
I feel like that's the perfect size
for a snack.
It gives you two or three bites
and it's not too big, not too small.
So that is my preferred size.
But honestly,
you could do whatever you prefer.
So I like to use the tablespoon
measure. I dip it in oil
and I measure out two tablespoons
and just kind of squish
it between your hands a couple of times,
form it into a ball,
push down,
pinch any edges
that are not holding together, push down,
and then you can use your finger to create
that little donut shape.
I'm going to place it
on the greased steaming tray.
You could use your finger,
but my preference is to use a chopstick.
So let me just grab
two tablespoons of the dough,
mash it back and forth a couple times,
form a ball,
and then press it down into a puck shape.
You can put it on a plate
and use a chopstick and just kind of
push out the circle.
And it's a lot easier to do.
All right, have a puck
and then using a chopstick just
create the little circle in the middle.
And that's a lot easier to do
this.
I'm just going to brush some oil on top.
There it is. These are ready to steam.
So I'm going to start
by wrapping the lid for my Dutch oven.
I have some water boiling
in the Dutch oven, but I want to make sure
that the steam doesn't
fall back on top of the papdi no lot
as much as possible.
So I'm just going to wrap a kitchen towel
around the lid,
grab the opposite corners and just tie
a couple of secure knots.
Now, that is not going anywhere.
I have a trivet
going to place inside the water.
Now that the water is boiling, add
the papdi no lot,
add the lid
and set a timer for 20 minutes.
Okay. It's been 20 minutes.
And let's check on our papdi no lot
you can see that
it's expanded a little bit.
Going to take them out of the heat.
I'm just going to let them cool
a little bit before I touch them.
So about 10 to 20 minutes,
just let them rest here
and then they will be ready to eat.
The papdi no lot has cooled and you can see it's
nice and
cooked and just perfect texture.
It's soft and spongy
and chewy and just perfect.
When you take a bite.
Okay,
So good.
Perfect on its own.
Just delicious.
Different families
enjoy papdi no lot in different ways.
You could just eat it with some plain oil,
peanut
oil, avocado oil, or even olive oil work.
Really well.
You could also add some oil
and some pickle masala.
What I'm going to do today
is one of my favorite ways.
But actually my absolute favorite way
is to just eat it with plain oil,
but is to have a little bit of oil.
Add a small pinch
of sanchar, or Indian black salt,
and a small pinch of flaked chili powder
and just swirl that around.
And I love just kind of pouring this over
my papdi no lot.
So I'm going to
grab one
and just drizzle a little bit of this,
swirl that around and just drizzle
a little bit over here, papdi no lot
and just perfect.
Mush it around a little bit.
So good.
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