Nivedita's Kitchen: Pav. vegetables

Showing posts with label Pav. vegetables. Show all posts

Friday, February 2, 2018

PAV BHAJI MASALA POWDER AND BHAJI

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Not understanding how to start this post. Very happy to try this at home. In this busy life, we are depending more and more on store bought food or ready to make food and these masala powders. We get ready masala powders for every food from each corner of the world. We have become lazy and it is taking our health into a crazy world. If you are my regular follower, you have seen me avoiding ready masalas. I always tried to make everything at home from the scratch except those Chinese food. There also I tried to make home make powders whenever possible. Now I have decided to make all the powders at home. So I browsed many blogs, websites to get the recipes and collected lot of recipes.

PAV BHAJI : Though it is from Maharashtra, specifically Mumbai, now a days Pav bhaji has become an essential and very common street food of India.Its tangy, spicy flavor attracts everyone. Pav Bhaji is very regular food in my house. We all love to eat Bhaji even without Pav. Many times I planned to make the masala powder at home but was scare that I may not get the same taste of what we get from the shop bought powder.

But I was wrong, I can give 9/10 marks to my masala powder as it tasted exactly the street food. Why one marks less? Because of the color factor they add into it. And one new trial was I have used Guntoor dry red Chillies where as all the recipes asked for Kashmiri dry red chilli.

When I searched the ingredients for this masala powder, most of the ingredients are basic and same, but few demanded to add black salt, chaat powder.

After going through all the recipes, I settled down with Hebbar's Kitchen homemade pav bhaji masala powder. But here also I added more amchur powder as I felt the quantity given in the recipe is less.

I have given the recipe for powder and the bhaji also.

First Let's start the recipe for the masala powder:

I am taking exactly from the site except red chilli and aamchur powder

Makes ONE CUP OR 220 ml

Ingredients :

4 tbsp coriander seeds

2 tbsp cumin seeds

2 bay leaf

10 cloves

2 cardamom

2 inch cinnamon stick( Please take care to use the real Cinnamon(Round and spiralled, as what we get those flat long ones are not real cinnamon and they are not good for health.)

1 tbsp pepper

¾ tbsp saunf

10 dried Guntoor red chili (Please use Kashmiri dry red chilli, if available, it gives the color to the powder)

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tbsp aamchur powder(How I wish I could make this dry mango powder at home!)

Procedure :

Keep all the ingredients ready.

Take a thick bottomed pan and keep it on slow flame.

Be sure you are there till the roasting is done. As if any ingredient is over roasted or burnt, the flavor is a failure.

First roast the coriander seeds and cumin seeds on a low flame, once you get the aroma, transfer it into a plate.

Next roast the peppers and saunf. After transferring this to the same plate, add bay leaf, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon and roast for just half a minute. Take these out and add red dry chillies, roast till they you feel the aroma. Take all the roasted ingredients in the plate and allow it to cool.

Once cool add the turmeric powder and aamchur powder,

Mix well and grind into a fine powder.

Remove, mix well and store in a box, preferably glass one. You can store it for 3 months at least, But in my house this quantity is only for a month as i use this masala powder to make VAANGI BAATH, TAWA PULAO, EGG RICE and sometimes in the MASALA UPMA too.

Actually, I have my old PAV BHAJI post here, but still thought of posting it once again as the vegetables used in that are different. But it is a pictorial post. Please do visit.

Coming to this recipe,

Serves 6 persons

Ingredients:

To boil:

Potato - 4 to 6 big
Peas - 1 cup(I love to use dried peas, soaking it for few hours or over night and boiling them with other veggies, as I feel you get the taste of street food.) You can use the frozen or fresh peas too.
Cauliflower - 1 cup (cut into florets) Again here I always hated to add this veggie into bhaji where as all my friends loved it. I was using beans and carrot, but once when I tried this combination, even I liked the taste. But if you don't like it or it is not available you can skip it and add one more potato or peas. But do not add Beans as it gives different flavor)
Carrot - 1 big, cubed

To fry

Oil - 1 tbsp
Onion - 2 big chopped
Capsicum - 1 big, any color
ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Tomatoes - 2 to 3 big
Tamarind paste - 1 tsp(Optional)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp or more if you want it spicy
Sugar - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves - handful, cleaned and chopped finely to garnish
Fresh butter or Amul butter - 1 tbsp to garnish

Procedure :

Take potatoes in a cooker vessel. Add water to cover the potatoes.
Take the peas(if using soaked ones), carrot in another vessel. Add little water.
Keep it in a cooker and allow 3-4 whistles.
Till it gets cool,
chop the onions, tomatoes and capsicum or bell pepper
Open the cooker and take out the potatoes. Peel and mash it with the potato masher.
Mash the boiled peas also.
Heat oil in a wide thick bottomed vessel. I use another cooker.
Add the onions when oil is hot, cook till it changes its color.
Add ginger-garlic paste and saute it. Add chopped tomatoes(even puree will be ok). Mix well and cook till the raw smell of tomato goes.
Add the capsicum and florets, Mix well and allow it to cook till the capsicum turns soft.
Now add the fresh bhaji masala powder, salt, turmericpowder and red chilli powder , tamarind paste. Mix well. Cook for half a minute.
Now add mashed potatoes and peas. Add little water. Mix well. close the lid and cook for two minutes.
Add some more water( around 2 cups). Add sugar. Mix well again and cook for 3-4 minutes. Open the lid and check the taste. Adjust the seasoning. Cook for another few minutes. Sprinkle fresh coriander and a tbsp of fresh butter. Keep it aside to serve.