Pav bhaji used to be the special dish on birthday's in my family. I used to assist my mother in peeling and chopping a heap of vegetables and watch her cook the pav bhaji. The most time consuming and boring part in cooking bhaji is the peeling and chopping of vegetables, mostly garlic. But all the hard work was well paid off.

INGREDIENTS

For cooking vegetables

2 cup bottle gourd, roughly chopped

2 cup carrots, roughly chopped

1 cup potatoes, roughly chopped

2 cup water

For the tadka

2 tbsp oil

1 head of garlic, skinned and finely chopped

4-5 green chili, finely chopped

3-4 medium sized onions, finely chopped

4-5 large tomatoes, pureed

1 tbsp tomato ketchup

1 cup peas

1 cup water

Salt to taste

1 tsp kashmiri red chili powder

1 heaped tsp coriander powder

1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves, for garnish

2 tsp butter

For pav

8-10 pavs / buns

Butter to toast the pav

METHOD

For cooking vegetables

Rinse and wash the vegetables before peeling and chopping. Add the vegetables to a pressure cooker along with 2 cup water and cook for 10-15 minutes on medium flame. The vegetables should be cooked such as they get mashed easily using a masher. If needed, cook for 3-4 extra whistles on medium flame.

For the tadka

Take a deep pan and turn on the flame to low. Add oil to the pan. When the oil is warm, add garlic and green chili and cook for 3-4 minutes until garlic turns brown. Add chopped onions and cook till they turn pinkish brown. Add tomato puree, tomato ketchup, stir well and cook for about 5 minutes till the oil separates. Add salt, coriander powder, red chili powder and cook the spices for another few minutes.

Add peas and a cup of water and let it cook for a couple of minutes.

Add the mashed vegetables to the tadka, stir well and cook on low flame for about 20-25 minutes. Add butter and chopped coriander towards the end and stir well.

Serve hot with butter toasted pavs, chopped onions and lemon.

For cooking pav

On a hot tawa, toast the pav with frequent flips while applying butter on both sides. Keep the flame on low to avoid burning of pavs.

NOTES

You can use vegetables as per availability in the pantry and feel free to add extra green chilies / red chili powder to make the bhaji more spicy.

The basic thing I keep in mind while cooking bhaji is, the ratio of onion / tomato tadka is kept roughly equal to the ratio of mashed vegetables. This way the vegetables get a good flavor from the spices and their bland taste is balanced out.

Add extra butter as per need.

Enjoy the leftover bhaji with parathas / leftover pavs for breakfast next day.