Pav Bhaji

Pav Bread 

An amalgamation of seasonal vegetables in a buttery onion - tomato masala gravy served with toasted butter dripping bread!

The BEST butter-dripping, cholestrol-mongering Pav Bhaji is served at Sardar Pav bhaji, Tardeo, Mumbai.

(pic courtesy : google images, Sardar pav bhaji, Tardeo)

(pic courtesy : google images, Sardar pav bhaji, Tardeo)

When I make pav bhaji at home, obviously the amount of butter is far lesser and I have used ordinary bread loaf instead of the traditional pav, which is like bun.

Ingredients:
Potato - 4 medium
Carrot - 1 medium
Cauliflower - 3 large flowerets
Beans - 5
Green peas - 1/2 cup
Capsicum - 1/2
Onion - 2 medium
Tomato - 2 medium
Ginger - 1 inch
Garlic - 2 cloves
Green chilly - 4
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tbsp + Chaat masala - 1 tsp (or) Pav bhaji masala - 1 1/2 tbsp
Chilly powder - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Butter - 3 tbsp (or) Ghee - 1 tbsp  + Vegetable oil - 2 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Tomato ketchup - 1 tbsp

Other ingredients for serving:
Pav bread to serve
Butter - 1 tbsp for each slice to toast
Onion - 1 large, chopped fine
Lemon slices
Coriander leaf

Prep:
Grind together the ginger, garlic and green chilly.
Pressure cook the carrot and potato. Peel and break up.
Boil the peas, beans and cauliflower until well cooked.
Chop the onion finely.
Grind the tomato and keep aside.
Chop the capsicum finely.

Method:
Heat the butter in a heavy bottomed vessel and splutter the jeera in it.
Add the chopped onion and fry on a low flame till it gets golden.
Add the ginger-garlic-green chilly paste and fry till raw smell goes.
Now add the salt, turmeric powder, chilly powder, sugar and masala powders.
After 1 minute of frying add the ground tomato.
When the tomato gets cooked, add the mashed vegetables and capsicum.

Now mash well using a potato masher.

Add some water to make a thick gravy. Boil for 10 minutes covered.
Add tomato ketchup and mix well. Cook for a further 5 minutes.
Serve hot with more butter on top!

If you have left over Bhaji, try making Tawa Biriyani.

Brinjal curry for Tapioca

Each district in Kerala has a different recipe for the accompaniment made for the classic side dish of

Tapioca. 

This is the Kottayam district style and it uses malabar tamarind / kodumpuli instead of tamarind.

And it is different from my earlier version as there is no coriander powder used. Also all the fresh spices are chopped and not ground.

Make both on different occasions and choose what your family likes best.

To know how to prepare tapioca -keral style with lots of fresh coconut , click here.

Ingredients:

Brinjal - 3, cut into halves or quartered

Small onion - 11 to 12

Ginger - 1 inch

Garlic - 3 cloves

Green chilly - 3

Curry leaf - 2 sprigs

Kodampuli - 4, soaked in 1/2 cup water for 10 minutes

Red chilly powder - 3 tbsp

Salt

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Pepper - 1 tsp

Uluva / methi / fenugreek seed - 1 tsp

Coconut oil - 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Method:

Cut the onion, garlic and ginger into small pieces. Sit the green chilly.

Dry fry the uluva and peppercorns. Cool and powder.

Heat 2 tbsp coconut oil and splutter the mustard seeds and then add the broken red chilly.

Into this add the chopped spices and curry leaf.

Fry on a medium flame till onion becomes transparent.

Reduce flame to the lowest and add the red chilly powder.

Fry for 2 minutes till the raw smell goes.

Now add the soaked kodampuli with the water.

Add the salt and turmeric powder and bring to a boil.

Now add the brinjal pieces and cook covered on a low-medium flame for 5 minutes.

Turn off flame and add the powdered spices and 1 tbsp coconut oil.

Keep covered for a further 10 minutes and serve with tapioca.

Aubergine Roll

We had this amazing starter at Mocking Bird Cafe, Mumbai and my younger one who hates anything with Brinjal / aubergine wanted more!

Very easy to make and very tasty. If you have the red pasta sauce at hand, this recipe gets ready in a jiffy!

Ingredients:
Aubergine / Bharta Baingan
Olive oil - as required
Italian Tomato Pasta Sauce
Cheese spread - 1 tsp per aubergine slice*
(* if you are using plain, try adding some flavoring like pepper or rosemary)

Method:
Slice the aubergine into thin long slices.
Grill on each side using ample olive oil, until brown spots appear. Cool to room temperatre (or the cheese will melt).
Roll each grilled slice with cheese spread.
On the serving platter, dot with tomato sauce and place a roll on top.
Serve.

Bread / Bun / Pav

Baking bread has always been a dream for me. I waned to never buy bread and over the years I have tried many recipes, some a success like ciabatta and jewish white bread and some breads are very elusive - like a whole wheat bread.

I attended a baking class some years ago, conducted by Mrs.Anitha Issac and she gave a simple recipe of white sandwich bread. But what I took away mainly from that class was how to fold the bread! The recipe was not really all that great.

Ciabatta recipe is easy and good. The bread is very tasty with many air pockets. But you do not knead the dough, so shaping it into a loaf is an issue.

Jewish white bread does not smell like the bakery bread which we enjoy a lot. (presence of egg?).

And then came the news in the papers that almost all the packaged bread is filled with chemicals and preservatives. My search was getting desperate. 

Watch how industries make bread using machines : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-U-BHB-mrM

Around this time my husband ate 'the tastiest bread'. It was made by Mrs.Suman Kenny and when I messaged her she told me she made 'milk bread from the wok's life' blog. The recipe used both egg and heavy cream. I decided that I will use either banana or milk in the place of egg and since I did not have 'heavy cream' , I added 1 big tbsp butter to my milk.

Oven Temperature : 180 C

Ingredients (for 1 loaf or 12 pav):

All purpose flour / maida - 2 cups + some more

Sugar (powdered) - 2 tbsp (1/6 cup)

Yeast - 1/2 tbsp

Salt - 3/4 tbsp

Milk - 180 ml (1/2 cup + 1/3 cup)

Butter - 1 tbsp heaped (room temperature)

Oil for greasing proofing vessel and bread loaf tin

Method:

Mix together the flour, sugar and salt. 

Add in the yeast and mix well.

Add the butter and crumble it well to incorporate it into the flour.

Add the milk and start kneading. Add 1/4 cup more of flour if you feel it is too sticky. 

Knead for 5 minutes.

Grease a vessel and place the kneaded dough inside it.

Cover and proof until doubled. (In South India = 1 hour)

After 1 hour, knead the dough for 5 minutes and shape.

Grease the loaf tin and set aside.

Shaping the loaf

Spread the kneaded dough into a rectangle and fold the thirds like an envelop. Bottom third towards the middle and top third on top of the middle.

Pinch the edges and place in a greased bread baking loaf tin with the pinched side down.

If you wish to make Pav bhaji bread then shape into small balls and place within 1 inch of each other.

Dust the loaf / pav with more flour on top.

Proof again under a damp cloth for 1 hour.

After proofing the pav will look like this.

 Just before baking, slash 2 slits on top of the ordinary loaf with a sharp blade or you can try these designs too.

You might love to watch this slovenian chef make art on bread!

Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes.

Remove from tin and cool.

You can brush butter or sugar syrup on top to get a glazed look.

Once cool , use a serrated knife to cut into slices.