Soan papdi is India’s tagda answer to the West’s cotton candy. A favourite Diwali mithai— soan papdi is pretty much like a parcel passed on from one’s home to another during the festive season. Yet it’s a dish that has intrigued many of us, after all, unlike halwa, kheer, barfi and other mithai, soan papdi is one dish we seldom prepare at home due to its complexities. It’s not just us, even Chef Vikas Khanna is blown away by soan papdi. Vikas Khanna calls it “sweet threads of heaven”.
Vikas Khanna Shares Viral Soan Papdi Making Video On Twitter
The renowned chef took to Twitter to share a viral video by @streetfoodrecipes about making the popular Indian sweet, soan papdi. Made of sugar, ghee, cardamom, milk, flour and gram flour, the stringy, flaky, melt-in-the-mouth texture of soan papdi is why it’s so loved across India and the globe. The viral video gives viewers a glimpse into the making of the complex sweet dish.
Though I’ve trained & cooked a lot in Indian sweets for decades, but I’m always amazed & inspired by the brilliance of Soan Papdi.
There is nothing so technical, complex & luxurious as this sweet. Ever.I call it “sweet threads of heaven”#Salute #Respect to these… pic.twitter.com/sazSCaY3jM
— Vikas Khanna (@TheVikasKhanna) May 22, 2023
First ingredients are added to a kadai and heated to form a thick caramel. Once it cools down, a group of men sit in a circle and stretch the caramel to form its signature stringy, thread-like texture slowly. They add a mixture of besan and flour to it. And mix it well and once again stretch it using small wooden sticks. Slowly, you can see the soan papdi’s thread-like consistency forming. It almost looks like sweet hay.
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He Sends Out His Respect To The Chefs Cooking This Complex Sweet
Next, they go on to layer it in a flat tray and then cut it into smaller pieces. Finally, they add the small pieces of soan papdi into steel boxes. Vikas Khanna, in his caption mentions that despite training and cooking a lot of Indian sweets for decades, he is still amazed and inspired by the brilliance of soan papdi. He states that nothing is as technical, luxurious and complex as this dish.
The renowned Indian chef send his respect to the artists, halwais and chefs preparing soan papdi in the viral video. He ended his message by calling soan papdi “sweet threads of heaven” and we couldn’t agree more! Meanwhile, catch up on this Vikas Khanna interview with Curly Tales.
Meanwhile, are you a soan papdi fan like us too?
Cover Image Courtesy: Curly Tales and Canva