How To Make Pav Bhaji
Pav Bhaji is a wonderful one-pot meal. It’s also a great way to get the kids to eat their veggies. Since it is all mashed up, what they can’t see…..
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http://www.showmethecurry.com/2007/04/18/pav-bhaji/
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Step 1:
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Welcome to Showmethecurry.com. I’m Hetal. I’m Anuja. And today we’re making an all-time favorite, Pav Bhaji. It originated on the streets of Mumbai, or Bombay, and has become a household favorite. It’s also very, very famous as a party dish because it’s a one-pot meal, very healthy, so simple to make, and it’s a great way of sneaking veggies into your kids.
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Here’s what you’ll need. Five large potatoes, chopped finely in a food processor. One medium cauliflower, chopped finely in a food processor. Two cups frozen green peas. Salt to taste. One cup water. Oil, two tablespoons. Butter, two tablespoons. One teaspoon cumin seeds. A pinch of asofoetida. Half teaspoon turmeric powder. Half teaspoon red chili powder, or to taste. Two medium onions, finely chopped. Four teaspoons minced garlic. Four teaspoons minced ginger. Two medium tomatoes, finely chopped. One eight-ounce can of tomato sauce. Four teaspoons pav bhaji masala, or to taste. Two teaspoons coriander powder. Lemon or lime juice, to taste. Cilantro, finely chopped for garnishing. Bread, for serving.
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All right, we’re going to start off first with our potatoes. We have food processed them, and we’re going to add a little bit of salt. This is to taste. And a little bit of water, and this is about a half cup. So usually most of the recipes for Pav Bhaji call for boiling the potatoes and then mashing them up. But what we’ve noticed is if you do that, the potatoes become absolutely pasty, and that’s not what you want. You want it to retain its shape, and have a little bit of texture. So, all our vegetables, the potatoes, the cauliflower, we have actually food processed it so that it doesn’t get overcooked and doesn’t become pasty.
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So you’re going to cover this and put it in a microwave. All microwaves are different, so check on it. Give it a couple of minutes, give it a stir, and that way you’ll be able to find out if it’s cooked or not. And when it’s completely cooked, you’ll take it out, and we’re going to do the same thing with the cauliflower. We’re going to put the cauliflower and the peas together. They take about the same time to cook. And also to save time, while the veggies are cooking in the microwave, we’re going to go ahead and get started on the stovetop, and get our masala ready.
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So we have a medium non-stick pan going on medium heat right now. We’re going to start by putting our oil and butter in and melting our butter. You can use all butter if you want, but I’m trying to make it a little bit healthier. Pav Bhaji is not the healthiest of dishes, but the more of it you can save a little here and there. You still get the flavor of the butter, but you’re not using it all.
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So we can go ahead and add our cumin seeds. We can switch it out with the cauliflower now. Now we can add in our asofoetida, or hing. Our turmeric powder. And red chili powder. Give it a nice mix, and we can add in our chopped onions.
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Now we’re going to cook these onions for a little while, about two minutes or so, before we add in our ginger and garlic. We can go ahead and add in our salt. It helps the onions cook a little faster. And at the same time we can add ginger and garlic. And we actually added just a couple of vegetables, but you can add a lot of other vegetables if you like. You can add carrots, which is absolutely optional. I add broccoli and beans. Or bell peppers. So you can add pretty much whatever you want. Whatever you like. I love bell peppers, I love green beans, and carrots. I just don’t like them in my Pav Bhaji. But if you’re doing this for kids, and you’re trying to sneak in veggies, go ahead. Whatever it takes. Add them in there.
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OK, it looks like the oil is separating from the onions. And it cooked down really nicely. So we can add in our tomatoes now. And we’re going to let these cook for about a minute before we add the tomato sauce. OK, now we can add the tomato sauce. This really adds a nice color to the Pav Bhaji. The tomatoes are cooking down nicely. The oil is starting to separate. So that’s fine. We can add our Pav Bhaji masala, this could be bought at any Indian grocery store. Also, our coriander powder. And just incorporate the masala nicely into your mixture. And then we can go ahead and add our veggies.
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The potatoes have actually cooked in the microwave for fifteen minutes. And after every five minutes we’ve actually stirred it, and we’ve cooked them covered. The cauliflower and the peas took ten minutes and again, covered. Now, we used the microwave. This is a great recipe for the microwave if you’re cooking a big batch like we are. But if you want to use a pressure cooker, that’s absolutely fine, too. Now I’m going to mix this really well. And also you might want to add a little bit of water, depending on how dry your vegetables are. OK, we added more water. This is the consistency you’re looking for. And what you might want to do is use your spatula to kind of mash down on the Pav Bhaji. The Pav Bhaji is nicely incorporating.
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Looks good, yes. Our last step is the lemon juice. Lemon or lime juice, and that’s to taste. I’m just going to add it in. It gives a nice tang at the end. Now if you’re cooking this Pav Bhaji for kids, and you really want to have a little kick to it, what I usually do is at this point, I take some out for my kids, and then I go ahead and add in the red chili powder, more masala, whatever it is, I add it in at this point, and let it cook for another couple of minutes, and it’s done.
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OK, the Bhaji is ready. That’s the vegetables. It’s actually a bread. And it looks like the dinner roll you get in the U.S. You can get wheat, you can get white, you can get potato. And you can even use hamburger buns. They work great, too. So I’m just going to slit this, cut it through the center, and I’m going to just open it up. Also, we have a non-stick skillet going here and I’m going to just put very little butter on it and let it melt.
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OK, our butter is melted and this is a little pinch of Pav Bhaji masala. I’m going to just put a little in here. And then we just take our buns and just smear it on here. And, the other one. And just toast them for a few seconds. They taste best when you heat them up and then serve immediately. So, try to do this as a last step to your process. Or you can put it in a broiler or toaster if you want. Or if you’re doing a lot of buns at the same time, then an oven works great. nd there you have it, Pav Bhaji ready to eat. It’s also usually traditionally served with some onions for garnishing, some lime cut up, fresh lime or lemon, and of course, cilantro.
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If you’re up for it, also: a nice pat of butter. It’ll be awesome. So join us again on another episode of Showmethecurry.com. Adding a pinch of spice to your life.