Pav Bhaji-Mumbai’s most famous street food-usually loaded with butter, butter, clarified butter and more butter. Sanju loves it. If there’s Pav Bhaji on the menu, he will have that. If I give him something he totally hates and call it Pav Bhaji-he’d go for it. So I learn’t the recipe, failed over 15 times and then nailed the recipe. I make a vegan version (I can see people go-what? Pav Bhaji without butter?) but this turned out better than normal.
I made my own spice mix, also added store bought pav bhaji masala (it makes a difference). Recipe to the spice mix as follows:
For the Spice Mix-You need:
- 4 dry red chili, 1 tsp black pepper
- 3 Tbsp coriander seeds, 1 Tbsp cumin seeds, 1.5 tsp fennel seeds
- 3 cloves, 1 small cinnamon stick(1/2 inch), petals from 1 star anise, seeds from 2 black cardamom pods
Dry roast them together and grind into a fine spice mix using spice grinder. Now add a heaped Tbsp of Dry mango powder and that’s your spice mix. Keep it in an air tight container. You can use this for 3 pav bhaji sessions
Bhaji/Curry recipe-You need:
- Mixed Veges-1 carrot, 1 potato, 1/2 medium eggplant, a handful frozen peas, 6 green beans cut into bits
- 1 large red onion- chopped fine
- 2 and half tomatoes medium-size
- Ginger-grated-1 heaped Tbsp
- Garlic-grated-1.5 heaped Tbsp-grated
- Turmeric-1/2 tsp +1/2 tsp
- Homemade spice mix-1 heaped Tbsp
- Salt-to taste
- Chopped onions, lemon wedges to serve
- A handful of coriander-finely chopped
- Black cumin/cumin seeds-1 heaped tsp
- Rice bran oil-1 Tbsp [if you are not watching out for calories-1 extra Tbsp]
Method:
- In a large stock pot, add 1 cup water, 1/2 tsp turmeric, salt to taste, bring it to boil, and add all the veges and let them cook. Don’t add too much water. As water evaporates, keep adding 1/4 cup at a time and cook until mushy and mash with a potato masher-chunks here and there is okay-that’s the first thing you do. (prep onions & tomatoes while this is happening)
- In another pan, add oil, while it is hot, add black cumin seeds, add onion-saute until it is golden brown. Time to add grated garlic and ginger. Fry for a couple of minutes
- Add tomatoes, turmeric, store-bought spice mix, your homemade spice mix, salt, fry for 2 minutes and add 1/2 cup water-close and let it cook. This is the best way to cook any curry. (Do a taste check-if you want more chili powder-add it at this stage-it should be pretty spicy cos remember you are going to add a ton load of veges).
- Open the lid, wait for water to evaporate, add another 1/2 cup water, cover and let it cook. (Repeat the process until the tomato and spices are cooked very well)
- Time to add this onto mashed veges and stir. Mix them really well, cover and cook for 5 mins or until the veges start to stick to the bottom of the stockpot.
- Add coriander leaves-Serve with lemon juice and chopped onions.
- Serve with Polenta Brioche Buns (Recipe as follows)
I tried to reintroduce gluten into my system and it didn’t go well at all. ‘Pav’ in the phrase ‘Pav Bhaji’ means brioche bun. I couldn’t find my gluten-free roll at coles. I love polenta-so thought why not try this-I did not miss ‘Pav’. It is not the same. But lighter side of things -‘Something is better than Nothing’ and this something was super tasty. How many ingredients? 3. Yep-Polenta, water, salt and you’ll have these cute looking brioche buns 🙂
Ratio is 1:5. 1/4 cup polenta to 1 and 1/4 cups of water, salt to taste
- Dry roast polenta for couple of minutes. Transfer to a plate.
- Allow water to boil in a sauce pan, add salt, when it is boiling hot, slowly add polenta while constantly stirring so that there are no lumps
- Cover and cook for 3-4 minutes. Keep flame low and watch out-spits out a lot.
- Stir once in 30 seconds so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the sauce pan. Once it starts to thicken -porridge consistency, add to a 8*8 square cake tin(lined) and let it sit for an hour. You could put it in a refrigerator.
- After an hour, use cookie cutter and cut out circles. Pan roast them with a bit of coconut oil and serve 🙂 (I used a round cup to cut out circles-that’s why they’re not perfect)
I am tired writing the recipe 😛 But managed to whisk it in an hour. Was it worth it? Hell yeah-Sanju loved it-His reaction to Pav Bhaji is priceless-It tastes amazing too <3
Now that’s a fab post C!
thanks Sonal <3
A perfect comfort meal for our cooling weather!
It is <3
Great recipe and beautiful photographs..:)
Thanks <3
Oh my god, I am speechless!!! That looks fantastic 😀 Polento buns so very tempting 🙂
Thanks Malar <3
Amazing.. never used rice bran oil.. should try. Polenta bhaji is creative man.. Now I am getting lot of ideas..you can make polenta bhaji sandwich and bake it too 🙂
Thanks Sri <3 Oooo. those are great ideas <3
oh my gosh, that bhaji looks enticing.. and polenta brioche incredible…. very very creative Charu.. 🙂
Thanks Chitz <3
Love it all, yes please!!
<3 thanks
Thank you for bringing it to Fiesta Friday :)))
I’m not vegan, but I do have seven food allergies (including milk & egg) and celiac disease, so I definitely understand some of the work that goes into crafting a recipe without key ingredients. I’m very impressed with how long you worked to perfect this recipe. It looks delicious. Happy FF, and have a wonderful weekend!
P.S: I definitely went through a polenta phase, but I have seen some amazing GF rolls in bakeries, so maybe you could learn to make an amazing one too! (That is if you remain GF, I forget if you were tested for celiac or not. I don’t want to make any assumptions about your future diet plans. 🙂 )
Hey Kaila 🙂 Thanks for your message. You have a great weekend too. <3<3
Nah, haven't got tested for celiac yet, but eating anything with gluten makes me so tired and my eyes feel dry. Will take the test in Feb. I feel great if I don't eat gluten. So sticking to that.
GF rolls-that's a great idea. I am going to go hunting for one now 🙂
Very cool! I just thought I’d ask because the free annual screening in the U.S. at the University of Chicago happens to be this week. But, then I realized that you don’t live in the U.S., so it wouldn’t be very helpful! And, you have to be eating gluten for the test, and I think you’ve currently cut it out. So, probably, not helpful at all, but it’s still a cool event!
I’ll be on the lookout to see any tasty rolls that come out of your kitchen. 🙂
Awww. you’re so sweet. <3<3<3 I will check out if there are any online links to it. Good to know about it 🙂
Awesome!!!!
Thanks <3<3
Polenta buns? Polenta buns? I could not believe my eyes. Fabulous!
Thanks Aruna <3
beautiful pics!! and polenta buns are such a terrific twist!! need to be trying these out 🙂
Awwww.. Thanks <3 Let me know if you do 🙂
What a great idea to substitute polenta for Pav! Fab recipe Charanya!
Thanks Su 🙂