Instructions

1. Choose a papaya that gives along its length and smells sweet at the stem. An underripe one tastes faintly of vegetable, which is the last thing this particular combination needs.
2. Scrape the black seeds out and peel it thickly. The skin holds a bitter latex that carries straight through into the puree.
3. Blend the papaya, peas, water, lemon juice, honey and cornflour until no pea skins are visible as flecks. Pea skins do not break down further in the pan and they dry into tough little specks.
4. Simmer the puree for two minutes after it reaches a boil, stirring constantly. This matters more here than in most leathers: raw papaya carries an enzyme that breaks down protein and keeps the sheet from setting, and the heat is what stops it.
5. Let it cool, then pour about a cup per leather onto a drying sheet and tilt the tray until the surface finds its own level. A cup per sheet keeps them all the same depth, which is what lets them finish together.
6. Dehydrate at 52 °C for 11 hours. Judge it by lifting a corner rather than by the clock — a finished sheet comes away from the liner cleanly and a wet one stretches.
7. Move the peeled leathers onto the mesh rack for another 3 hours at the same setting, so the underside that has been against the solid sheet can dry as well.
8. Roll each leather in baking paper while it is still warm and store the rolls in an airtight jar for a month, or freeze them for six. The peas make this one less sugary than a pure fruit leather, which also makes it the first to spoil if it was stored under-dried.