Mumbai Pav-Bhaaji

A nice hot ,healthy vegetable with warm toasted bread(pav/dinner roll) is what you would crave for these cold wintry nights. Something which you can make as a one dish meal but could yet be very full of veggies, satisfying and rich. This dish sure does fit the bill in that case.

Pav-Bhaaji is Mumbai street food which is healthy inspite of being sold as street food.

You have yummy potatoes, cauliflower which has cancerfighting , bone strengthening propertiesand is heart healthy too, green peas which are high in fibre, capsicums(bellpeppers)which again have various health benefits and then the onions and garlic . By now you would agree with me that PavBhaaji is indeed a healthy food which can be enjoyed by young and old alike.

Ingredients:

6-7 medium sized potatoes boiled, cooled and mashed

2 cups cauliflower boiled and mashed

1 cup green peas boiled and mashed

2 carrots grated

2-3 tomatoes finely chopped

2 cups capsicums finely chopped

4-5 medium onions finely chopped

1/2 beetroot boiled and mashed(for colouring)

2 tsp garlic paste

2-3 tsp Everest Pav-Bhaaji Masala(found commonly in your Indian grocery stores )

1/4 tsp red chilli powder

salt to taste

1-2 tbsp oil

For the garlic paste:

Soak 3-4 cloves of garlic with some red chillies for about half and hour and grind them in a mixer with some salt.

Procedure:

In a heavy bottomed pan heat some oil and saute the onions in it till they turn pink.

To this add the finely chopped tomatoes and saute for a while.

Then add the finely chopped capsicum and grated carrots and saute for some time adding little salt .

Then add the garlic paste to it and fry for a while and now add the pav-bhaaji masala to it.

Now to this add the boiled and mashed potatoes,beetroot, cauliflowers and peas.

Add required salt, chilli powder and water to adjust the consistency. The aim is to get all the veggies mashed up and blended to a point where you cannot much identify them seperately.

Let it come to a boil or till everything comes together.

Serve it garnished with finely chopped onion, coriander and a wedge of lime by the side alongwith pav toasted with butter.

You could also add a spoon of butter to the hot bhaaji(vegetable) just before serving it. That makes it into Special pav bhaaji.

Great dish for when you many members to feed, for kitty parties, birthday parties and get togethers as well.

If you do not want to toast the pav when your guests arrive then you could do what my mom used to do. She used to butter the pav in the centre and the outside beforehand and set it aside .

Then when the guests arrive she would place each pav on a idli mould and steam it. This makes the pav hot & soft. But you should do this only when you have many people and you want to serve many at a time but serve immiedately. If kept for some time then the pav beomes soggy.

Couscous Pulao

The latest health food to catch America's craze is Couscous.They have started using it in salads, stuffings and lot many ways. Also this ingredient was a lot discussed upon between me and my friend Ramya of Susvaad in many of our health food conversations .So I was also very curious about it and wanted to try it out.Exactly at one of these times my friend told me that she had tried one version of the couscous and that it turned out good. Given this assurance by her I went ahead and bought myself a pack of Couscous and tried this recipe out. Turned out to be a variation of our very own rava but more bigger in size and has more texture. Can be very easily used in pulao or upma without being very mushy or clumpy .This dish can be a one dish meal too. It has no fat or cholestrol so it is considered to be among healthy foods. It comes in prepackaged versions which cooks in 5 minutes so these dishes can be prepared in a jiffy.

Ingredients:
250 gm /10 oz couscous
1 1/2 cups of mixed vegetables of your choice
(I generally use mixed peppers/capsicums, peas, edamame(soy beans),broccoli,onion,tomato,carrots,beans etc as in a pulao. You could use anything you have on hand).
1tsp cumin seeds
1tsp dry basil
1 1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp paprika/red chilli powder
pepper powder to taste
salt to taste

Procedure:
In a large bowl boil 2 cups of water and to it add the pack of couscous. Also add to it 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tbsp of olive oil or butter.
Cover the bowl and let it stand for 5 minutes.
Fluff the couscous lightly with a fork and drain any excess water from it.
In a pan or wok heat a little olive oil and temper it with cumin seeds and when they crackle add to it the basil leaves.
Then add to it the crushed garlic and onion and saute it till the onions turn pink in colour. Then add to it the tomatoes and saute for a min and add the rest of the vegetables you are using and stir fry them on a high flame till the vegetables are tender but crisp and firm adding salt as required and the rest of the ingredients.
To this add the couscous and gently mix everything . Serve it hot with raita or chips or papad.