Quick Pav Bhaji

The recipe of this Pav-bhaji is slightly different from the conventional recipe, where chopping, sauteing and mashing is required. Hence, the name is Quick Pav-bhaji. Also, my aunt use to serve pav-bhaji with red chilly-garlic chutney, which compliments pav-bhaji like anything. This method is suitable for making pav bhaji in bulk quantity.

Lastly, credit of making this pav-bhaji goes to my wife..

Ingredients :
Vegetables:
1 bowl roughly chopped onions
1 bowl roughly chopped tomatoes
1 bowl of chopped capsicum, cauliflower and green peas
4-5 medium sized boiled potatoes


Spices :
2 tbspns chilly garlic chutney
2 tspns pav bhaji masala
1 tspn kashmiri red chilly powder
1 tbspns ginger garlic paste
Salt to taste

1/2 cup oil
3-4 tbspns butter
Water for cooking vegetables
Corriander for garnishing

For Pav
Bread loafs (Pav)
Butter for frying bread

To serve with :
Red chilly-garlic chutney
Finely chopped onion
Butter
Roasted Pav (Bread loaf)
Grated processed cheese (Optional)

Preparation :
Pressure cook tomatoes, onions and vegetables (except boiled potatoes) till 3-4 whistles
Allow it to cool
Make fine paste of it in a blender
(If you do not like fine paste, then blend it with hand-blender to keep the vegetables chunky)

To make Pav-bhaji :
Heat oil and butter in a Kadai
Then add red chilly-garlic paste, ginger garlic paste and pav bhaji masala in the mixture of oil and butter
Saute it for 1-2 minutes
Then add the cooked vegetables paste in it
Cook it for 5-6 minutes
Then add mashed boiled potatoes to the mixture
Also add salt and red chilly powder (if you love spicy taste)
Cook it for further 5-6 minutes
(Add water if necessary)
At the end add fresh choppped corriander

To roast Pav (bread loaf) :
Cut bread loafs in the centre
Heat pan and grease it with butter
Roast bread on the greased pan from both the sides
Serve hot

Serving Pav-bhaji :
Take Pav-bhaji in a bowl
Garnish it with chopped onions and chopped corriander
Place a dollop of butter on the bhaji
Place buttered pav in the dish
Also serve Red chilly-garlic chutney and slice of lime with the pav-bhaji

Notes :
Carrots are also used in few pav-bhaji recipes
You may also add lime juice to ready pav-bhaji to give tangy taste
To make it more rich, immediately put grated processed cheese between two sides of bread after roasting
Also garnish pav-bhaji with processed cheese, fried cashews to give it a rich look

Stepwise Pictures :

Spicy Red Chilly-Garlic Dip

This recipe belongs to my aunt. She use to serve Pav-bhaji with this Red chilly-garlic chutney and believe me it tastes awesome. It enhances the taste of pav-bhaji. Also, this paste can be preserved for 8-10 days and can be used in any curries or as a Spicy Dip.

Ingredients :

25-30 dry red chillies
20-25 garlic cloves
Salt to taste
2 tbspns butter


Preparation :

Soak dry red chillies in half cup water for 3-4 hours
Transfer soaked red chillies, garlic and salt into a blender
Blend it into a coarse paste
Heat butter in a kadai
Fry the chilly-garlic paste in butter for 2-3 minutes
Can be served with Fried items or Pav-bhaji


Notes :
This paste can be preserved for 8-10 days in refrigerator

Step-wise pictures :

Simple Vegetable Pulao

Simple Vegetable pulao is slightly different variant of pulao from that I use to make earlier. All the vegetables and cashews were deep fried. Here, I have tried to avoid oil by substituting the process of deep-frying with blanching of vegetables. Also to make it a bit healthier, the quantity of vegetables used is more. (You may reduce the quantity of vegetables as per the taste). Also, since I have used ghee, it became dry after some time, so you may substitute it with oil and also add some fresh cream to make it moist.

Ingredients :
1 cup basmati rice
1/2 cup carrot julienne
5-6 cauliflower florets
1/2 cup green peas
10-15 french beans
1 cup onion cut lengthwise

Whole masala (1-2 bayleafs, 5-6 black peppercons, 3-4 cloves, 1 stick cinnamon)
2 tbspn pure ghee (You may substitute ghee with oil) + 1 tspn ghee for rice
1/2 cup cashews (soaked in water for 1 hour)
1-2 tspns Pulao Masala or Biryani Masala
1/4 tspn lemon juice
Water as required
Salt to taste


Preparation :

To cook rice :
Wash rice and keep it aside for 30 minutes
Add 2 cups of water to the rice
Along with water also add lemon juice, 1 tspn ghee, bayleafs, pepper, cloves, cinnamon stick and salt to the rice
Cook the rice in pressure cooker till 2-3 whistles
After cooking, spread it on a plate and allow it to cool
If required, pour some ghee over it to avoid sticking of rice

To cook vegetables :
Boil water in a pan
Add 1-2 tspns of salt and 1 tspn sugar
Then add french beans, carrot, green peas and cauliflower to the water
Boil it till it is cooked
Immediately pour cold water after cooking

To make Pulao:
Heat ghee in a pan
After heating add Pulao masala or biryani masala (I added whole spices due to non availability of powder)
Then add chopped onions and fry till it is light brown in colour
Then put soaked cashews in the pan and again saute till it changes colour
Then add all the blanched vegetables
Saute it for 2-3 minutes
At the end add cooked rice to the mixture
Stir it for few seconds
Add salt if required
Cover it with lid for 3-4 minutes
Serve hot with Dal Makhani or Kadhi



Notes:
Pulao turns dry after some time, hence re-heat the same after sprinkling some water before serving.

Stepwise pictures :