Soan Papdi

Before you bite into soan papdi, remember it is not just related to Patisa and Mysore Pak but to a whole genre of flaky flour based confections that have come to us from interactions with other cultures.I first saw it made in a modest halwai "factory" in a small village near Hissar in Haryana. It was monsoon--- the time of the year, when apparently soan papdi sells most briskly in the Hindi heartland- the time around Rakshabandhan. Though, of course, packaged and branded mithai and the longetivity of this flour and fat based sweet now means that we consume it all year round, regardless of occasions.

The flaky soan papdi however, is just a cousin of the Patisa, a seemingly far more ancient mithai. Besan as an ingredient is fairly unique to Indian cooking. Even though chickpeas are predominant in Arabic cooking, the flour and its innovative uses are pretty intrinsic to Indian cooking-and spread across the Subcontinent.