Pav bhaji

Pav bhaji is heart of Mumbai. If you have lived in Mumbai and never eaten this mouth watering dish then your stay is wasted.

Many chef's in different cities across the world try to recreate this dish but the authentic taste which you can find in Mumbai you can not find any where else.

This recipe is next best to the Mumbai resturant pav bhaji. Nothing beats few famous street vendor's pav bhaji.

Few hot spots to eat yummy pav bhaji in Mumbai are as follows.
Maruti pav bhaji: very hot and black in color but taste can beat any five star chef's pav bhaji. This guy operates in Vile parle west near Bajaj road corner off Dada bhai road. 5-10mins walk from Vile parle station.

Amar juice center: medium hot and red in color. This guy again mainly has take away service or you can eat on your car boot. This is near Irla, vile parle west.

Sardar pav bhaji: Heard a lot about sardar pav bhaji. Never had chance to go and eat. He is near Bombay central. Last time I had a chance to peek in.

Shiv Sagar pav bhaji: This is again amazingly tasty. They have lot of branches but my favorite is Juhu branch.

Bhagvati pav bhaji: This guy operates until 5am. So all the night lovers come to him for tasty food and but of course pav bhaji. He was a street vendor but now has few restaurants. Original one is in Irani wadi, Kandivali west.

Next best is home made pav bhaji which I am going to show you in a minute.

Serves 4
Ingredients:
Onions: 2 medium, 1 small for garnish
Tomato: 4 large
Tomato: 1 tin chopped tomato (this will enhance the color)
Potato: 1 large, 2 medium
Green peas: 1 cup

Cabbage: 2 cups grated
Capsicum: 1 large
Fresh garlic paste: 3 table spoon
Red chili powder: 2 table spoon
Pav bhaji masala(Badshah or Everest): 2 table spoon
Lime juice: 2 table spoon
Freshly crushed pepper: 1 table spoon
Salt to taste
Oil: 2 table spoon
Cumin seeds: 1 tea spoon
Salted butter:50gms (more the better)
Coriander: finely chopped.

Preparation:
Follow the procedure step by step and do not try to compromise any step else you will not get the final result.

Peel and grate onions or finely chop it.

Wash and grate capsicum or finely chop it.

Wash and remove out skin of cabbage and grate it.

Boil potatoes until soft, peel the skin off. Boil green peas until soft and mesh it along with potatoes.

Heat water and boil tomatoes until the skin cracks.
Take the tomato out of water once the skin cracks.
Take the skin off and crush it into smooth paste.
Heat the pan. Add 2 table spoon of oil and 1 table spoon of butter.
Add cumin seeds. Once seeds starts to splutter add red chili powder.
After 20-30 seconds add 1 spoon garlic paste. Stir well.
This will allow color to come out from red chili and pav bhaji will also come out nice and red.

Add onions and allow it to get soft for a minute. Add little bit more butter if onions start to get dry.

Add capsicum and allow it to cook for a minute.
Add cabbage
and allow it to cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add tomato paste and mix well.
Add one tin of chopped tomatoes. This will help enhance the color of pav bhaji even better.
Add salt to taste, 1 table spoon pav bhaji masala and 1 table spoon red chili powder. Add 1 table spoon of butter and mix well.
On the slow flame allow gravy to cook and let it get thick. You can see in the photo from the edge gravy starts to bubble up.
Add meshed potato and peas and mix well. Add another spoon of garlic paste at this point.
Adding garlic at later stage retains the garlic flavour. Hence we are adding garlic at three different stages.
Let it cook for a minute or two. Add lime juice, 1 more spoon of pav bhaji masala, freshly crushed black pepper, 1 table spoon of butter and mix well. Take it off heat and we are now going to blend it all together.
This is going to give it all new look. You will be surprised that how pav bhaji is turning into nice shape and it will all make sense to you why we did all of above.
Once everything is all crushed, take a little taste and add more spices if required.

I do need to add little bit more salt, pepper, little bit pav bhaji masala, 1 table spoon of butter or more and 1 tea spoon of garlic. Mix well.
Heat this on low flame for 5 minutes to allow all spice to mix well into crushed vegetables.

Garnish with coriander and cover it to avoid drying out.
Serve hot with toasted bread of your choice. Garnish with chopped onions, tomatoes, coriander. Add one small spoon of butter on as well. You can also add grated cheese on top.