Mix Vegetable Kheema Masala

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Again, another post from my kitchen following the restaurant style food.(Another recent post is restaurant-style-white-color-veg-pulao)My kids hate me most of the times when it comes to eating out. I avoid outside food unless I am out of station or the restaurant is having a very special menu and which I can not prepare at home. But at the end of the day, somehow I put my full effort to learn that dish and start making at home. My husband happy to save his money, I am satisfied that I can feed my family the fully homemade food. In between my kids give a dirty look. Hey, but not always. They love and enjoy each bite I serve.

There is nothing like home food. It is safe, healthy, tasty and cheap. I think I learnt it from my mother to prepare everything at home, When I was a kid, we never had many hotels and they served only our local food like idly, dosa, upma or South Indian meals. It was rare for us to get North Indian dishes in the hotels. I remember we had only two hotels in Dharwad to have North Indian menu. But mom always felt it is costly and we can not have it. I don't know how and where she used to learn, but without oven, she used to bake the cake, cookies. She used to prepare Mughlai dishes also. My father was a great cook too. I always miss his food.

Coming to today's recipe, It is restaurant style Mix Vegetable Kheema Masala. Kheema is my favorite. But as my family don't like it, I do not make non-veg kheema. Last week, when I was struggling to decide what to make for the dinner, it flashed to me to try  this recipe. AS usual I browsed few blogs and websites. But was more confused. So I ended up with my own recipe. It may sound similar to other recipes, but it is different and taste is just perfect.

Here you are free to add any vegetable of your your choice. You can omit one or two if you don't have. But Cauliflower is a good vegetable to add. It gives that chicken kheema texture and even the nearly similar taste. And if you add Soya granules. I did not add as I was short of time to soak it and grind.

Coming to the recipe:

Vegetables:

Cauliflower - 1 cup, cleaned, washed and grated

Beans - 1/2 cup, cleaned and chopped finely.

Carrot - 1/4 cup, cleaned and finely chopped

Fresh peas or frozen peas -1/2 cup

Paneer -1/2 cup, crumbled. (I prefer using home made, you can use store bought)

For masala:

Oil - 2 tbsp

Onion - 1 big, finely chopped

Ginger-Garlic paste - 1 tsp

Tomato Puree - 1/2 cup

Green chilly - 2 finely chopped

Red chilly powder - 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Whole spice - 2 clove, 1/2" cinnamon, 1 cardamom and 1 bay leaf

Cashew nuts -8 to 10 soaked in little milk for 15-30 minutes

Fresh cream - 1/4 cup(Again, here I have used directly from the milk. Usually I collect the cream to make into butter)

Kasuri methi - 1 tsp(I make kasuri methi at home which really tastes good and aroma is very good)

Kesar - few strands, soaked in the milk(optional, it gives royal color and the taste. Actually I had kept it but forgot to add)

Fresh Butter to garnish

Fresh coriander - washed and chopped finely to garnish the dish.

Method :

1. If you have ready tomato puree, use it directly. I blanched the tomatoes and pureed it.
2. Boil the fresh peas and keep aside. If using frozen ones, you can use directly.
3. Keep Everything ready.
4. Heat oil in a thick bottomed kadai.
5. Add onions and cook till transparent.
6. Add Ginger-Garlic paste and green chilly, saute it.
7. Add all the vegetables except Paneer.
8. MIx it well and cook it for few minutes or till the raw smell of cauliflower goes off.
9. Add tomato puree, mix well. Cook for a minute.
10. Add the paneer and mix well.
11. Add red chilly powder, turmeric powder and salt.
12. Add 1/8 cup of water, and cook it for few minutes.
13. Till that, make the cashew paste ready and add it to the curry.
14. Now add the fresh cream, kasoori methi and kesar. cook for a minute and garnish with butter  and fresh coriander.

Here, I prepared Jeera rice and Dal fry and Naan without yeast and tandoor with papad, onion and lemon. Or you can try Dal Tadka from my old post Full meals.

I laugh at myself and feel proud also to see how I have improved in cooking when I see the old photos from my blog. Now I am much better cook than before. Thanks to you all, this blog world and my family. And of course the almighty super power who has blessed me this great life. 

Your comments and guidance will be highly appreciated. Waiting for your responses. 

Keep Smiling, 

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. 

AND THE TASTE WAS JUST AS PERFECT AS THE SHOP BOUGHT MASALA POWDER. 

To serve we need :

Per plate:

Pav - 2, toasted both the sides with little butter

Onion - 1 small

Fresh coriander - 1 tbsp

Lime - a quarter piece.

Butter - 1 to 2 tbsp

Take a serving bowl or plate.

Add the bhaji. Garnish with butter, onion and fresh coriander. 

Serve with pav and lime. 

Please check some more similar recipe from my blogging friends:

pav-bhaji from Sapana of  CookingWithSapana

Mumbai Pav Bhaji from Jayashree of Ever Green Dishes

Pav Bhaji from Nayna of simplysensationalfood and

Pav Bhaji from Avin of The Yellow daal

Keep smiling,