Fafda & Sambharoફાફડા અને સંભારો
Long, crisp strips of seasoned gram flour served with papaya sambharo and fried chillies. This is Sunday morning in Gujarat, and on Dussehra the queues outside the shops start at dawn.
Ingredients
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- 2 cups gram flour (besan)
- ½ tsp papad khar or baking soda, ½ tsp carom seeds
- 3 tbsp oil for the dough, salt
- About ¾ cup water
- Sambharo: 2 cups grated raw papaya, mustard seeds, asafoetida, turmeric, green chillies, salt, sugar
- Oil for frying, plus chillies to fry
Method
- Dissolve the papad khar in a little water. Knead a soft dough with the flour, oil, carom seeds, salt and that water, and rest it 15 minutes.
- Take small balls and press each into a long strip with the heel of your palm on a smooth surface. Fafda are pressed, never rolled.
- Fry in medium-hot oil until golden on one side, then turn and finish the other.
- For the sambharo, temper mustard seeds, asafoetida, turmeric and chillies, add the grated papaya with salt and sugar, and toss 3-4 minutes.
- Serve the fafda hot with sambharo, fried chillies and chutney.
Tips
- Pressing with the palm is the whole skill; the first few will be thick and that's fine.
- Too-hot oil gives hard fafda instead of crisp ones.
Storing and reheating
Let fafda cool completely before they go into an airtight box. Boxed warm, the trapped steam softens them from inside. Stored properly they stay crisp for four or five days. Never refrigerate them; they pull in moisture and go leathery. Keep the sambharo in a separate box in the fridge for a day only, since it weeps water that would ruin the fafda.
What you can swap
- No papad khar? Half a teaspoon of baking soda will make fafda, but the dough will not stretch as far under your palm, so the strips come out shorter.
- Without raw papaya, make the sambharo with cabbage and carrot instead. The method is unchanged, except you toss it two minutes less because cabbage softens quickly.
- Ghee in place of oil in the dough gives richer, more brittle fafda. They taste better and break more easily, so lift them carefully.
- If you have no carom seeds, leave them out rather than reaching for cumin. Cumin changes the character of fafda completely.
What to serve with it
Fafda with jalebi on Dussehra morning is a Gujarati institution, with queues outside farsan shops that day. Otherwise it is Sunday breakfast, served with sambharo, fried chillies, yellow chutney and tea. In Ahmedabad and Surat a thin besan kadhi often comes alongside.
Mistakes to avoid
- Do not dust the counter with dry flour while pressing. Smear a drop of oil on your palm and the surface instead. Dry flour toughens the fafda and burns into black grit in the frying oil.
- Do not crowd the kadhai. Each addition drops the oil temperature and the fafda soak it up instead of crisping. Three or four at a time, with room between them.
- A strip left thick stays dense and chewy at the centre however long you fry it. Press until the dough is just translucent.
- Do not pile hot fried fafda on each other. Spread them in a single layer on a rack, or the steam from the ones underneath turns them soft.
Questions people ask
Why are my fafda chewy instead of crisp?
Usually the strips were too thick, or the oil was too hot. On high heat the surface colours before the inside has cooked, leaving raw dough within. Fry on medium for longer and wait for the fafda to go quiet in the oil; when the bubbling stops, it is done.
What is papad khar and do I need it?
Papad khar is an alkaline salt that makes besan dough stretchy, so it pulls into a long thin strip under your palm without tearing, and stays open-textured when fried. You can make fafda without it, but expect shorter, thicker pieces.
My dough tears while I press it. What is wrong?
It is too firm. Work in a tablespoon of water and half a teaspoon of oil, knead hard for five minutes and rest it ten. The dough should feel as soft as an earlobe and faintly greasy. Also press in one direction only, pushing forward from the base of your fingers.
