Pav Bhaji - a beloved street food of India

In India, Pav Bhaji is a beloved street food.  Huge iron pans would be fired up and all the vegetables would be arranged in heaps at the rim.  The making of Pav Bhaji is pure theater.  The street cook would brandish his huge spatulas. The pan would hiss and sizzle as he deftly added the main vegetables and the tomatoes and dash off various spices and powders with adroit twists of his palms.  The rhythmic tapping emanating from the stirring and mashing of the Pav Bhaji usually attracted a crowd of people- me included.  When the Bhaji was done, it would be served with a dollop of butter, freshly buttered bread and a topping of chopped onions/cilantro and a wedge of lemon :)  This, my friends, is pure heaven...

Ingredients:

1. Potatoes - boiled, peeled - 4 medium sized red or white potatoes ( russet is fine too)

Boil/ steam the following till soft with a little salt

2. cabbage - 1 cup (chopped)

3. carrots - 2 - peeled, and cut into big pieces

4. beans - 1/3 cup ( chopped)

5. green peas - a handful

6. Cauliflower - 1/2 head cut into florets

7. Pav Bhaji Masala -( Everest, MDH, Badshah are all good) and Coriander/cumin powder ( Dhan jeera)

8. Tomatoes _ 4 large chopped fine

9. onion- 1/2 cup- chopped fine

10. cilantro

11. lemons - 1

12. Rolls of bread- Hawaiian sweet rolls taste the best, but any roll works

13.  Oil and 1 spoon of butter

Steps:

mashed veggies

1.  Add the boiled potatoes to the steamed vegetables and mash into a pulp...

tomatoes and onions cooking

2. Heat a large wok with 2 spoons of oil and add half the chopped onions and then the tomatoes and 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro and cook till it is soft.

3.  Add 4 spoons of the Pav bhaji masala and fry for 30 seconds 

4.  Add the Vegetable Mash

5.  add 1/2 cup of water and salt to taste

6.  stir the mixture constantly as it cooks and coagulates

7.  Add 1 spoon of dhanjeera powder to the pan and keep stirring.

8.  For added taste, you may choose to add a spoon of butter to the pan.  You can also add another spoon of Oil.  When the bhaji is well cooked and looks as it does in the topmost picture, turn off the heat.

9.  Cut up the roll into 2 and smear with with a little butter and paprika and quickly toast it on a pan till golden.

the Pav Bhaji masala

10.  Serve the Bhaji with chopped onions and cilantro on top with a wedge of lemon and hot buttered rolls on the side.

ENJOY