Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Pav Bhaji - Anytime, Anywhere


Seldom is one's better half good at cooking. Seldom would you find him beat you in a particular dish. And rarely would you enjoy watching him sharing the recipe with rest of the world. My husband's exceptionally good dish - Paav bhaji. It is tough to resist the temptation of having paav bhaji. Enjoy it with crispy paav and you are sure to have you stomach filled with great dish and heart filled with content (forget calories for one day). This dish needs a bit of patience, but is worth trying since the results would be great. Since my better half has excelled in the recipe, he is going to share with you the preparation in his own words :)


Ingredients:

·         3 Roma tomatoes
·         3 – 4 potatoes
·         1 medium size egg plant
·         1 medium size cauliflower
·         2 medium size onions or 3 small onions.
·         7 cloves of garlic
·         Pav-Bhaji Masala
·         Green chillies
·         Lemon juice
·         Vegetable oil
·         Ginger as per taste
·         Pav or soft white burger buns
·         Salted butter
·         Peas
·         cilantro

Method.

1) Wash and peel skins of potatoes, and egg plant. Dice them.
2) Wash and dice the cauliflower
    
3) Pressure cook the potatoes, eggplant and cauliflower – usually 5 – 6 whistles
     
4) While the vegetables are being cooked in the pressure cooker the gravy can be made – for the gravy finely chop onions, mince garlic and grate ginger. Finely chop tomatoes – tomato skin can be removed if you do not like it.

5) In a wok (kadhai) heat 2 tbsp of oil

6) When the oil heats up add the chopped onions, fry till they turn brown – salt can be added to expedite the process

7) Once the onions turn light brown add the minced garlic and fry for 3 minutes, the garlic will also turn golden brown

8) It is now time to add the tomatoes, keep stirring at regular occasions.

9) Wash peas and set them in a microwave safe bowl with water for 3 minutes. They will be partially boiled.

10) Remove the microwave safe dish and strain the water.

11) Keep an eye on the gravy, make sure it doesn’t burn, keep stirring.

12) If the pressure cooker has clocked 5 -6 whistles then it is time to turn it off and remove from the heat.

13) While the pressure cooker cools down you can simmer the gravy, if the tomato in the gravy starts to leave oil, then it is time to lower the heat.

14) Open the pressure cooker and strain all the water.

15) Now mash all vegetables – potatoes, egg plant and cauliflower and mix to make it a smooth paste

16) Toss these mashed vegetables in the wok on top of the gravy, 

17) Add the peas

18) Increase the stove heat 

19) Add 3 tea spoons of pav bhaji masala (you may increase or decrease this based on how much flavour you need), one table spoon of red chilly powder, chopped green chillies and half a cake of salted butter.

20) The red chillies powder should bring a nice colour to the bhaji. 

21) Add salt as per taste and keep checking the taste while this cooks, add salt or red chili powder to make up for taste as per your requirement.

22) Simmer and cook for a few minutes

24) On another stove, place a flat pan and start heating it, add a spoon of butter and lightly fry the the pav or burger buns on it, so that they have a golden brown texture, no need to fry the entire pav.


Your Pav-bhaji is ready, before serving and once the bhaji is removed from flame, squeeze some lemon juice on it. Serve with cilantro and raw onions.

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