kananga (sweet potato) happolu (Papad) with some Mint flavoured Watermelon Juice.

Chiri Chiri Pavusu (raining) from yesterday ............. so here is kananga (sweet potato) happolu (Papad) with some Mint flavoured Watermelon Juice .......

Papad is a very famous deep fried item served in almost every Indian household. Marriages or any other ceremonies are incomplete if papads are not served. As children we used love the crunchy crackles of papad as we stuffed them in our mouth. I still remember we children used to have a competition on who would say the tongue twister line "Kacha papad, Pakka papad" continuously without a pause.

Usually papads, a thin wafer like roti is prepared with urad dal flour and other spices and ingredients, sundried and stored. It is used whenever required by just deep frying them in hot oil. I will not go into the details of preparation of papad now, maybe some other time. Papads can also be roasted on flame to avoid it being too oily. There are many varieties of papad’s being made, using different type of flours, lentils, vegetables, spices, etc. To name a few, they are Urad, Rice, Moong, Sabudana, nachani, flvoured one’s like, garlic, tomato, palak, vegetable one’s like Raw jackfruit, sweet potato, potato etc. They are a lot to choose from. 

The most famous traditional one’s are the Urad and Chilly papad down south, used for lunch time. The jackfruit, sweet potato etc. are used as snacks. I still remember my mother used to fry and keep them ready for us, as snacks when we came returned from school in the evening. During holidays too we used to have them anytime of the day. My mother prepared them herself by preparing the dough and rolling them into large circles / rounds like rotis, with the help of some maids and my aunts. We children helped by running about, taking the papad and arranging them neatly in rows on a spread cloth sheet in sunlight. In the evening it had be removed and brought inside and again spread the next day in sunlight. This process was repeated till they dried fully. Then she stored them in big tins. Today’s day these are hardly feasible to be done at home, as we live in metro cities where such facilities and manpower is not available too. 

Also it is readily available in the market. There are many branded one’s available all through the year. We also get them in any Mangalore or South Indian Stores. So it is easier to buy them as and when required. But we do store some in advance before commencement of rains.

The monsoon has now started and due to heavy rains roads are blocked for last 2 days in Mumbai. So I deep fried some of the store brought sweet potato papads to munch on. Heat plenty of oil in a thick bottomed pan for deep frying, when the oil reaches smoking point, lower heat wait for 5 minutes. Keep the heat on medium and fry the papad's with the help of tong's one by one, flipping on both sides to evenly fry. Here are some sweet potato papads with mint flavoured watermelon juice.

** For the recipe of Mint Flavoured Watermelon Juice please follow the link given below ….