Pages

Search this blog

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Pav Bhaji comes to the rescue!


Weekends, or for the less fortunate of the human species (like me!), ONLY SUNDAYs, are often, busier and more jam packed with things-to-do than the weekdays!

We (AD & I) usually practise a division of labour when it comes to weekend stocking up the larder...he goes shopping for meat, fish etc while I go vegetable shopping. No particular reason, except for the fact, that though I love fish to death, i abhor the squalor in a traditional fish market. From this (and only this) aspect, I prefer the sanitised environment of a supermarket.


I wish some enlightened enterpreneur comes up with a retail outlet which has the feel of an Indian Bazaar sans the squalor and the mess !!!! The fresh & bright greens, oranges, purples, the scented aroma of the herbs, the smell of earth, the buzz of life and livelihood, the banter and bargaining...I love it all! The supermarkets with their racks of frozen stuff, with the uniformity and the impersonalised & almost mechanised service, bore me to death (read my take on shopping here) !

I want the best of both worlds!

I know I sound greedy and demanding..but I am! I want everything!!!!!! I want the quality, the variety, the bargain and the personal touch...i am the customer and the customer is the KING (oops! QUEEN!!)


The GenNex Biyanis, Ambanis.....are you listening?????

Well, coming back to where I started.....this weekend we decided to give schedule & discipline a miss and be lazy! We skipped the weekly marketing....
Consequence ? weekend masti and midweek crisis!!
Barely wednesday and my refrigerator was frighteningly empty.....there was a bit of this and a bunch of that and the freezer was worse off...it was empty !!!!!


So yesterday on my way back from office, which is the time i plan what we would have for dinner, I stopped at the neighbourhood kiraana shop and picked up a few packets of Pav, having decided it had to be PAV BHAJI for dinner.

Ingredients :
1. Pav - 2 packets

2. Masalas :
a) Pav Bhaji Masala - approx 2 tsp
b) Haldi/Turmeric - approx 1 tsp
c) Kashmiri mirch - 1 tsp
d) Red chilli powder - as per taste

3. Butter - the more the better! I used around 2 tbsp for the bhaaji & 2-3 tbsp to saute the pav

4. Lemon wedges - I had only 2 ..

5. Onions - finely chopped -3

6. Coriander leaves - chopped. (Thank god for my little pot of Dhaniya in the backyard!)

7. Tomatoes - 3 small tomatoes chopped

8. Green chillies - finely chopped

9. Ginger paste - 1 tsp

10.Garlic - 1/2 tsp (optional)

11.Oil - 2 tablespoons

12.Vegetables - the more the merrier!
- I used :
a) Potatoes - 4 medium sized
b) Brinjal - 2 small
c) Cabbage - 1/2
d) Carrot - 3
e) Beans - a small bunch...around 5-6
f) Bottle gourd- 1 small 2 " piece
g) Peas - 1/2 bowl (I used frozen peas)

13. Salt

14. Sugar

Procedure
1. Boil in a pressure cooker vegetables given above in 12a-12f. Mash them with a masher and keep aside.

2. Thaw the frozen green peas in salted boiling water.

3. Heat Oil in a wok and add garlic paste and 1 chopped onion and a pinch of sugar for taste and colour (very typical Bengali!!). Fry till the onions turn light brown & translucent.

4. Add the ginger paste followed by tomatoes.

5. Mix all masalas given at 2a-2d and salt with some water into a paste and add this to the fried onion-tomato-ginger-garlic. Cook till you see the oil separate out.

6. Add the mashed vegetables (prepared as in Sl. 1). Cook well for 3-4 minutes

7. Add a blob of butter and garnish with coriander leaves and finely chopped green chillies.


8. When serving, sprinkle finely chopped raw onions and squeeze a wedge or two of lemon.

9. Slice the pavs horizontally and pan fry them in butter, on a tawa till they are crisp yet moist.

10. Serve the hot buttered pavs with the bhaaji garnished with coriander-chopped onion & a dash of lime!



12 comments:

prasu said...

wow...........delicious and yummy pavbaji dear...lovely

Nithya said...

I am stupidly crazy for pav baji.. Love it like hell.. :)

Rush said...

my ultimate comfort food SGD...i so badly crave for it now!!

Ushnish Ghosh said...

Dear Sharmistha
So it was worth chilling out the weekend!!! " Ek dhil-e dui pakhi"..nice weekend and a great dish for midweek treat..I like Pao bhaji, when the bhaji is few scrambled shammi kebab (left over broken ones) with all the handy ingredients.
The vege one is great, but it is left to my wife..smashing and messing around with the vegetables
Happy cooking

Sudeshna said...

Sharmistha,
Pau-bhaji is one of my favorite street foods, this one looks so yummy. We had it a couple of days back, but before I could click the photos pau bhaji was half-over :D.

Indrani said...

I love pao bhaji anytime...and home made pao bhajis is a very good emal itself, all the vegetables in one dish, isn't it

Indrani said...

oops, I mean meal,not emal

Sharmistha Guha said...

@Prasu, Nithya, Rush, Indrani,
We all love pav bhaji! Given the simplicity of this dish, i was wondering whether it should be posted at all or not! ;)))

Sharmistha Guha said...

@Rush...when will these software & hardware guys invent virtual transfer of taste & food...i would have prepare some e-pav bhaji & sent them to you!!! ;)

Sharmistha Guha said...

@UG-Oooff ki daroon idea...pav kabab-bhaji!!! Durdanto! Definitely korbo with boneless chicken/sausages...

Sharmistha Guha said...

@Sudeshna-Same thing happened to me when I'd made Momo! Chhobi tolar aagei shesh!!!

sangeeta said...

followed to your blog from Ushnish's post of malai cuury which is really great..
you have a great blog i must say n since i love bengali food i find most recipes very very good.

pav bhaji looks awesome ...i have posted a pav bhaji made from scratch recently on my blog...