I had an “experiment” over the past weekend – “frying” papadams using microwave oven.
I had actually wanted to fry the papadams using my new Philips Airfryer but strangely enough, it failed. On my first attempt, one piece actually “flew” out of the frying basket and fell underneath it. And on my second attempt, it “flew” up and got stuck on the heating coil of the Airfryer. Fortunately, I discovered it fast enough and managed to stop the frying immediately. I still can’t understand why and how this had happened but perhaps this is one limitation of the Airfryer.
Switching to microwave oven, it worked well but time control is crucial.
Four pieces in each “fry”
With only 35 seconds (but not more), crispy, oil-free papadams are ready! They were just as good as those deep-fried ones. I started with 40 seconds for my first round, but some parts of the papadams actually became burnt.
Papadams are commonly served in Indian restaurant or with Nasi Bryani but I found that it went well with nasi kuning (aka nasi kunyit or yellow rice) which is an Indonesian rice dish, as well. Here’s my home-cooked nasi kuning served with chicken curry, ikan bilis (anchovies), papadams and cucumber. My nasi kuning was cooked using coconut milk, fresh turmeric, pandan leaves and garlic but without lemongrass. It took about 7-8 minutes @ 200 degree Celsius to air-fry the ikan bilis to brown, and to get a nice fragrance.
Cooking can be fun and I tend to get very excited when I want to try out something new. DS always says that cooking is a science which I agree, but I rely a lot on my cooking instinct which of course, can go wrong at times. 😀
QING Moments 
What a delicious looking post! =)
Mydearbakes, thanks for visiting my blog. Happy weekend!
Qing
Could it b the papadum is too ‘light’ for the fryer to handle? But I m impressed dat the microwave cld do the job.Mayb cn try prawn crackers to see if it work on the microwave oven..I envy DS….yum yum yum… 🙂
Hi FY,
That could be one possibilty. 🙂
I have tried prawn crackers on the microwave too but somehow it did not turn out as well as the Airfryer. In case of microwave oven, the prawn crackers were not evenly “fried” and if I were to add on a few more seconds, some parts would be burnt. Will have to experiment more when I find some nice prawn crackers. I was not impressed with the 三叔公 prawn crackers that I bought.