Papri Treats!

It was one of those days when I woke up with a Chaat craving. And Chaat is actually pretty simple to assemble at home: just boil some potatoes and chickpeas (or use the canned ones) and add some chopped parsely, tomatoes, onions and green chillies. Mix in some spiced up yogurt (you can use a Chaat mix or just make your own blend at home) with Imli (Tamarind sauce) and voila! The tricky part is the Paapri - especially because Chaat is never complete without Papri!


To prepare the Papri these are the things you will need:

  - 3 cups Maida
  - 1/2 cup Wheat Flour
  - 1/3 cup Oil
  - 1 tsp Red Chili Powder
  - 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
  - 1.5 tsp Cumin Seeds
  - 1.5 tsp Ajwain Seeds
  - Salt (according to taste)
  - some water (3/4 cup approx) to knead the flour

Crush the Cumin and Ajwain seeds in a processor till they are a coarse grind. Mix up all the ingredients EXCEPT water in a bowl and slowly add water as you knead the mixture to a hard dough. Remember that the dough should not be too soft like the way you would make for 'Rotis'. So add the water slowly.

Switch to a flat surface and make small balls for each Papri. Its completely upto you how big or small you want the Papri to be. I usually roll out mine to around 6 inches in diameter. Sort of the size of a large donut maybe. 

Deep fry in hot oil till both sides are brown and drain on a paper till dry.

The original recipe that I modified to this one did not state how long to rest the dough before rolling it out so the first time I just kneaded the dough and started making the Papris. They turned out fine but I noticed that when I used the same dough after keeping refrigerating it overnight, the Papri was even crispier. So I suppose if you can be patient enough you should let the dough rest in the fridge for a while, but if you can't that's good enough too!

 This recipe yields 10-12 Papris approx. The yield varies according to how big or small you roll out your Papri.