Pav Bhaaji - Bombay Style, Rasmalai

Pav Bhaaji is one special dish which was devoured as a teenager on parties. Birthday parties, especially, were incomplete without the 'Shiv Sagar' Pav Bhaaji served in Borivili West. :D
Commenting behind a seated group, in a bid to procure seats for our group, was another recreation! :)

My mom and mil are thee thee best in making this yummy dish, recreating the magic at home!

This is the very first time I attempted making 'Pav' at home as well.
I yet have to bake Anjali's/Annaparabramha MUMBAI pav recipe.
(the links that I followed are Jugalbandi- here, A Whirl of Aromas -here ) .
From Vini, got a link to breadworld dot com, the recipe is here. Thats what I followed, the glaze I followed Vini's butter glaze tip.

So here is the recipe for Pao / Pav.

PAV/PAO

Ingredients :

2 1/2 cups maida /all-purpose flour 
2 tbspn sugar 
1 tsp salt 
1 sachet Instant Yeast (SAF-brand-11gms)
1/2 cup milk 
1/4 cup water 
2 tbsp soft butter 

soft butter for glazing

Method :
In the bowl with mixer attachment combine 1 cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Heat the butter, milk, water until warm -temp 120-130F. Attach the hooks for kneading, add the liquid little by little and beat for 2 mintues on a medium speed, keep scraping the sides. (Donot skip the 'beat-4-2-mins' step-I found dough more elastic due to this step. ) Add the remaining flour (1 1/2 C) and knead for 8-10 minutes into soft dough. Cover with a damp cloth, resting time - 10-15 mins.
This would rise after the specified time. Line a sheet with parchment paper, divide the dough into 10 round balls, arrange with little space on the lined sheet, cover again with the damp cloth and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes to rise. The dough balls should be double in size, if not leave for some more time, instant yeast works fast. I got mine ready in 40 minutes.
Pre-heat oven to 400F for 10-12 minutes or till it browns lightly on top. (My setting, 180C/10 mins- then removed and brushed each of these with soft butter.)
Remove from baking sheet and IMMEDIATELY transfer to wire rack for cooling. (Anjali's tip - If you leave it on the baking sheet, the bread will sweat.)




We have lovely Pav here, mine got more tanned! :D But a very good experience and tasted good!

Served it with PAV BHAAJI- my mil's recipe.

Ingredients :

Vegetable Oil
3 medium onions
3 large tomatoes
2 green chillies
1 inch ginger chopped finely
2 large cloves of garlic chopped finely
2 Cups frozen mixed veggies(or 1/2 C peas, 1 big carrot, 100 gms french beans -topped,trimmed and broken to one inch length)
100 gm cauliflower
1 medium capsicum
2 large potatoes
2 tsp soft butter
salt
haldi/turmeric powder
1 tbspn Everest Pav Bhaaji Masala
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder (optional)
3 tbspn coriander leaves-garnishing
1 tsp butter per person (less or more for garnish/skip)

Method :
Wash and cook the potatoes, carrot, beans, peas,capsicum and cauliflower upto 3 whistles with quarter quantity of water, salt and haldi.
In a kadhai, heat oil, fry the sliced onions till transculent, cool, grind to paste, keep aside.
Add little oil, add chopped tomatoes, stir in between, till mushy and leaves the sides of pan. Cool, grind. Keep aside.
Take a heavy bottom kadhai, heat a tbspn of oil (or less) add the ginger garlic , saute till light brown, add green chilies, add the onion paste, saute for a minute or two, the tomato paste and mix in well. Add the pav bhaaji masala, red chili powder and garam masala and mix well. Allow to simmer. In the meanwhile, take the boiled veggies, drain excess water, they will be in shape, perfectly cooked. Mash them with the back of a spatula and add to the simmering paste, mix well. Let the entire mixture now simmer for around 4 -5 mins on a low flame. Add little soft Amul butter, salted version for that yum taste, garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with Amul butter roasted Pav. (Apply butter to the sliced pav, roast for around two minutes till it is bit crisp- Indulge n Enjooyyyyyy)

Mitha Ho Jaaye --

I had made Rasmalai from Namratha's blog - recipe here-- just love it every time I make it!

RASMALAI

This sweet and as I mentioned above the 'Birthday Party' treat is a "Special Birthday Wish" Post for a very very dear Food Blogger and friend of mine, MEERA-Enjoy Indian Food!

HAPPPPPPYYYY BIRTTTTHHHHHHDAYYYYYY MEEEEEEEEEERAAAAAAAAA!

HUGS, LUV N GOOD WISHES TO YOU N YOUR LOVELY BLOGS (480+ posts already in EIF and EWF -all healthy and nutritious!) WHICH TURNED ONE!!



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Baby Corn Manchurian, Veg Rice Chinese, Potato Bhajiyas, Coconut Laddoos

Baby Corn Manchurian (click on it for recipe)

Having picked up a lovely tray of cute little baby corn, got this wonderful recipe -easy and super delicious!! To go with it, made this rice, full of veggies on hand...truly complimented the dish! Made it from an old hand written stir fry recipe, and altered it a bit.



Vegetable Rice - Indo-Chinese style

Ingredients :
4 Cups boiled and cooled rice (any long grained white rice would do)
10 white button mushrooms sliced
4 spring onions, whites -chopped (save greens for garnishing)
1 carrot (cut lengthwise, thin, 2" long - 1/2 cup)
1 capsicum (de-seeded , chopped lengthwise-I used red bell pepper)
4 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
1 tbspn olive oil (extra virgin)
pinch of pepper powder
2 tbspn tomato ketchup
1 tsp garlic chilli sauce (increase qty for more heat)
1 tbspn soy (mild sweet) sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce (optional)
Salt to taste


Method :
Heat olive oil in a wok/kadhai. Add the garlic, saute it for about a minute. Add the chopped whites (approx 1/4 cup) of spring onion, add carrot, capsicum saute each for a minute or two, brown the mushrooms, add little salt and pepper. (Till this stage its normal stir fried veggies, you can have it hot as it is ...or proceed further )
Add the cooled rice and mix well. Add the sauces and mix well with spatula. Garnish with the spring onion greens. Check salt..some sauces do have salt content in them.

Serve along with Baby Corn Manchurian! Its lipsmacking tasty!!



Snack time!!! The potato bhajias that I have often savoured as kid 'Batatya Bajjo' in Konkani is the way my mother prepares these. ( My only addition is the garam masala!)
We indulged in this after many months! :D

Ingredients :
2 potatoes, washed clean , wiped and sliced a bit thickly than wafers
1/2 Cup besan (gram flour)
salt
1 tsp red chili powder
pinch of haldi
big pinch garam masala powder
1 tsp ajwain
water
Oil to deep fry

Method :
Take besan in a wide-mouth bowl. Add chili powder, haldi, garam masala, ajwain, salt. Add water to it little by little make it lump free and of sauce consistency. DONOT add too much water. If the paste looks watery, add more beasan and make it sauce consistency.
Heat the oil on medium flame, leave a tiny drop of this batter into the oil, if it rises the oil is ready for pakoras/bhajias. Dip the slices one by one in batter, coat them evenly and slide them carefully in the hot oil. Do not over crowd the oil kadhai. Fry in batches. Serve hot with sauce.

Enjoyyyyy with a steaming hot beverage!

Ending without meetha...impossible. I used to love the milkmaid coconut laddoos ad as a kid, also used to finish off these in matter of minutes! Mom had to hide these or chide me for over-indulging! :) These below are made from freshly scraped coconut which I had to finish off.


Coconut Laddoos

Ingredients :
1 cup scraped coconut
5 tbspn sweetened condensed milk
Elaichi / cardamom powder -a big pinch
Saffron a tiny pinch
yellow color two drops
1/2 tsp ghee

Method :
Heat a heavy bottom kadhai, add the coconut and condensed milk and keep stirring on a medium flame for 10 minutes or till the mixture comes together. Add the saffron, elaichi powder and color and mix it enough to combine uniformly.
After it cools a bit, say in 5 minutes, apply ghee to fingers and palms, roll into balls.
Garnish with your choice of dry fruits. I didn't, but yet these were tasty and yes...nothing goes wrong with coconut and condensed milk ! :D

Heavenly Bites the taste lingering for a loooooooooong time ....

--Missed Crusts! ~Rajma, Kofta , Eggless Cookies and Jamuns

MOZ PUFFS

15 mins bake time@180C, rolled out the frozen n thawed pastry sheets , cut into squares filled with shred mozerella cheese, pepper and fresh coriander leaves and baked.

I 'Clicked' but I missed the date!!! Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! How C(rusty) my brains are!
Those are one of the puffs I tried with shred moz and pepper for filling for kids. They gobbled on it! Well with the amazing crisp taste and kid-friendly filling, its surprising if they wouldn't! :D
Sorry Bee -- on missing out !

RAJMA MASALA.

A yummy Rajma-masala made with simple recipe from Chef Sanjay Thumma - Vahrehvah.com.. which went on well with chapatis/rotis.


The next dish is also from the same Chef, MALAI KOFTA ...was very tasty indeed!

Step 1 : All boiled veggies to be rolled into balls - dipped in cornflour and deepfried.

Step 2 : Make gravy and add these to them.

Step 3 : HOOOGGGGGGGGG! :D
You truly can't stop, these are soooo tasteful!

** I used Moz shred cheese instead of paneer.




Thanks Mr. Sanjay Thumma, your techiques are surely bringing in better reviews from the better half n kids!









Few cookies which went wrong in shape but great to taste...if you can guess with a glance at them:


Eggless Walnut Cookies and Thumbprint (???) Jam Cookies with them!
I wish to rename mine as PAW print cookies! :D No one in the blog world must have goofed up on this lovely cookie, I let the butter go too soft and got this shape as a consequence!
Nevertheless, they tasted gooodddddddd!
The jam I used was from IKEA food, Blueberry extra jam. Recipe from our sweet Mansi - here.
Thanks Mansi@ Fun-n-Food!!

GULAB JAMUNS - WITH MILK POWDER

This one comes from Kamala @ Moms Recipes here, unique thing is I made GJ first time with milk powder instead of a mix! Thanks Kamala -these tasted too good, plus addition of rose water gives a lovely scent of 'GULAB' to jamuns!
The first time I made Gits GJ was way back in my 8th std, the insides being raw! :D This must be the only thing besides chapati making that I tried my hands at during my teenage.. I envy u Meera for trying out chicken! :D

HAPPY NAVARATRI TO ALL OF YOU --am missing my Mumbai Dandias!!!!!!!!