Pav Bhaji



Pav bhaji


Pav Bhaji is a dish that originated in Marathi cuisine, It is a famous street food from Mumbai, Pav in Marathi means a small loaf of bread.  Bhaji in Marathi means vegetable dish. Pav bhaji consists of bhaji (a thick potato-based curry) garnished with coriander, chopped onion and a dash of lemon and pav. The pav is usually generously buttered on both the sides. It can be eaten as a snack or as a meal in itself.

Pav bhaji is my speciality. You can add other vegetables like carrot, beans,  cauliflower. etc, but i don't add them as they do take away the restaurant like taste.

 
Ingredients:

• 2 finely chopped onions
• 3 tomatoes ground into a puree
• 8 garlic cloves
• 1 inch ginger
• 3 green chillies
• 5 boiled potatoes and mashed
• 1 finely chopped capsicum
• 1/2 cup boiled peas
• 4 tea spoon pav bhaji masala
• 2-3 tea spoon red chilly powder
• 1/4 cup oil
• salt to taste

For garnishing:

• 2 table spoon finely chopped coriander leaves
• 2-3 finely chopped onions
• lemon wedges

To serve:

• butter as required
• pav

Method:

Grind ginger, garlic and green chillies together into a fine paste and keep aside.

Roughly mash the boiled peas and keep aside.

Heat oil in a vessel add the ginger, garlic and green chilly paste. Fry it till the raw smell goes off. Now add onions and capsicum, fry till the onions turn transparent.

Now add tomato puree cook for some time, then add red chilly powder, pav bhaji masala and salt. Cook till oil comes out.

Now add boiled and mashed peas and cook till oil comes out.

Add mashed potatoes and mix together properly. Keep mashing the whole mixture with potato masher, on low flame. Add water as required.

Keep on a low flame and simmer for some time. Now add 2 table spoon of butter.Mix it together.

Serve it pipping hot with pav and garnish with onion, coriander leaves and lemon wedges.

For the pav, slit open the pav from the middle. Fry them with butter from both the sides in a frying pan.

Now the Pav Bhaji is ready to be served.

Sabudana Vada



Sabudana Vada

Sabudana Vada is a popular Maharashtrian snack..Made of sago/sabudana and prepared mainly during fasting.

These crispy vadas simply melt in mouth and are very filling.

These vadas can be served with chutney or yogurt..I usually serve them with spicy yogurt.

Sabudana Vada with spicy yogurt

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sabudana
• 2 boiled, peeled and mashed potatoes
• 4-5 green chillies coarsely ground
• 3 table spoon roasted peanut powder
• 2 tea spoon sugar
• salt to taste
• 2 table spoon coriander leaves,finely chopped

Method:

Wash the sabudana and soak in water overnight (or) for about 4-5 hours. Make sure you add enough water to cover the sabudana. The water should be just half inch above sabudana. If you add too much water the sabudana may become sticky. After 4-5 hours sabudana will soak all the water and increase in size. Now the sabudana is ready to cook.

Mix together sabudana, mashed potato, green chilly paste, salt, sugar, roasted peanut powder and coriander leaves.Mix properly.

Make lemon sized balls and flatten them on your palms to make small patties.

Heat oil in a kadai and fry them till they turn golden brown.

Serve hot with Green coconut chutney or spicy yogurt.

Recipe of spicy yogurt.

Spicy yogurt

Ingredients:

• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 tea spoon red chilly powder
• salt to taste

Method:

Mix the yogurt, red chilly powder and salt together with a bit of water and beat.

Now the simple spicy yogurt chutney is ready to be served with sabudana vadas

Palak Pulao/Spinach Rice

Palak Pulao/Spinach Rice

 There are various methods to prepare palak rice. But this is a unique recipe with flavours of fennel seeds, black cardamom. It is a one pot meal.

Ingredients:

• 2 cup basmati rice
• 2 bunch palak/spinach
• 3 table spoon cashew nuts
• 2 onions cut lengthwise
• 3 tea spoon sugar
• 3 tomatoes, remove the seeds and cut lengthwise
• salt to taste
• 2 table spoon oil

For paste:

• 1 inch ginger
• 8 green chillies
• 10 garlic cloves
• 2 tea spoon fennel seeds/saunf/badishep
• 4 badi elaichi/black cardamom
• 4 cloves/laung/lavang

Method:

Wash and soak the rice and keep aside.

Wash and clean palak/spinach and grind with a bit of water into a puree. It makes around 1 1/2 cups of palak puree.Keep aside.

Grind ginger, garlic, cloves, fennel seeds and  black cardamom into a fine paste and keep aside.

Heat oil in a vessel, add onions and cashew nuts fry till they become golden brown. Now add the ground paste and fry for 2 minutes. Then add the washed rice and saute for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile in 1 1/2 cups palak puree add  2 3/4  cups of water and boil.

Once the rice is sauteed add in hot palak water, salt and sugar.

When it starts boiling add tomato pieces, cover and cook till the rice is done.

Serve hot with raita.

Note: In today's recipe I have not added any vegetables but you can add all types of vegetables to it like carrot, beans, potato, cauliflower and peas, fry them along with the onion and rest of the method remains the same.

 

Bagara Baigan Type # 2

Bagara Baigan Type # 2

As you might have reviewed my earlier post of Bagara Baigan, it is known to be one of the most delightful dish in the City of Nizams-Hyderabad. In my quest to learn the exact composition of cooking bagara baigan, I came across many recipes. I know around four to five different recipes of bagara baigan and all of them have a very unique and different taste. This one is among those recipes. I shall post the remaining varieties very soon.


Ingredients:

• 8 small purple brinjals(baigan)
• lemon size tamarind
• 2 onions, ground to a fine paste
• 1 tomato
• 1/4 cup oil
• 8-10 pudina/mint leaves
• 3-4 slit green chillies
• 1 table spoon finely chopped coriander leaves
• 3 cloves
• 1 inch cinnamon stick
• 1 tea spoon shahi jeera/ black cumin seeds
• 2 tea spoon ginger garlic paste
• 1 tea spoon coriander powder
• 1 tea spoon cumin powder
• salt to taste

For preparing paste

• 2 table spoon dry roasted sesame seeds (til)
• 2 table spoon dry roasted peanuts
• 1/4 tea spoon jeera
• 1/4 tea spoon mustard seeds
• 1 tea spoon chilly powder
• 1/4 tea spoon haldi

Method:

Wash and slit Brinjals from both the sides without cutting the brinjal completely with the stem intact and soak in water.

Soak tamarind in 1 cup warm water and keep aside.

Grind mint leaves along with the tomatoes into fine paste and keep aside.

Grind all the ingredients of the paste together with a bit of water (so as to have a fine paste).

Heat oil in a kadai and fry the brinjals till they are half cooked, remove and keep them aside.

In the same oil add shahi jeera, cinnamon stick and cloves fry till they change colour. Now add the onion paste and slit green chillies, fry till it changes colour and the raw smell goes off.

Now add tomato paste and fry for 2-3 minutes, add the sesame seeds and peanuts paste and fry till oil comes out.

Add tamarind water, coriander powder, cumin powder and salt.

After one boil add the brinjals and water if required. Cover and  cook for another 5-8 minutes or till oil comes out and till it gets thick gravy like consistency.

Serve hot with rotis or rice.