Bombay Pav Bhaji

There are a few food items that are synonymous with Mumbai nee Bombay and one of them is the Pav Bhaji. Juhu beach is thought to have the best Pav Bhaji in Mumbai. But there are some restaurants in Mumbai that make awesome Pav Bhaji too and each has a fan following of its own. The aroma wafting from the huge tawa where the guy mashes in the vegetables and a unique mixture of spices (that's what defines the unique Pav Bhaji taste) with some coriander leaves thrown in, is enough to entice anyone to have a plate of pav bhaji. On one side of the same tawa, soft pav is quickly toasted with Amul butter and this is slid on to a plate with some bhaji topped with butter, coriander leaves and chopped onion. Plates and plates of Pav Bhaji are thus taken to the hordes of people waiting for it. Some of the famous Pav Bhaji restaurants that I have visited or heard of in Mumbai are Cannon Pav Bhaji - opposite the CST station, Sardar Pav Bhaji - Tardeo, Amar Juice Center - Haji Ali, Shiv Sagar - Parle (E) & Juhu & Gurukripa - Sion.

Pav Bhaji is one of the things I miss here in Delhi, in fact I believe Delhi has not yet got the pav right. So each time, my husband or I visit Mumbai, we return with a dozen pav and the next day is a Pav Bhaji day at home. I use the Everest Pav Bhaji Masala and always get complimented for the bhaji. In fact, the recipe given on the back of the packet can be followed completely to make some awesome bhaji. My recipe -

Ingredients

Vegetables - 3 packed cups, cleaned, cut into pieces

Onion - 1 large, chopped

Garlic - 4 cloves, chopped

Tomato - 2 medium, chopped

Everest Pav Bhaji masala pwd - 2 tbsp

Red Chilli pwd - 2 tsp

Turmeric pwd - 1/2 tsp

Coriander leaves - 1 tsp, chopped

Butter - 1 tbsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Sugar - a pinch

to serve

Onion - 1 small, chopped

Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp, chopped

Butter - as much as you like  

The vegetables I take for the bhaji are potato, cauliflower, beans, green peas, carrots and capsicum. Potatoes should be half of the total quantity of vegetables and the rest should be made up of the other vegetables. Capsicum gives an aroma to this dish hence make sure to add some.

 

In a pressure cooker, cook the vegetables with half cup water, a little salt and turmeric powder. When cooked, mash the vegetables to a rough paste and keep aside. Use a hand mixer to mash quickly

 

Heat a kadhai with the oil and half the butter, when hot add the onion and sauté. After a minute add the chopped garlic and sauté till the raw smell goes. Add the pav bhaji masala powder and roast for a minute. Then add the red chilli powder, tomatoes and salt and sauté. Let the tomatoes soften completely, then add the mashed vegetables and mix completely. Add a little water to make a smooth paste and let cook. Check for salt. If the bhaji has less masala powder then add some and let it cook for a minute for some time. Add a pinch of sugar to round off the taste. Top with coriander leaves and rest of the butter and keep covered.

 

Slit the pav in the middle and apply some butter on both sides. Heat a pan, and roast the pav on both sides.

To serve, spoon some bhaji, top it with a blob of butter, sprinkle some coriander leaves and some chopped onion, then add a butter roasted pav and the Pav Bhaji is ready to be served. Keep some nimbu on the side to add that extra tang.

 

The Lore & Lure of Khidkiwada



With this post, my husband joins me on this blog.

 

If you are a Mumbaikar, you would definitely have your trysts with wada-paav. It’s an integral part of the city’s DNA, inseparable from its ethos.

I grew up in a city called Kalyan, about 45 km outside Mumbai. Now a bustling satellite city of Mumbai, Kalyan used to be a sleepy town, cut off from the Mumbai metropolis, socially and culturally. In fact, Kalyan used to be culturally more like Pune than Mumbai, though geographically it was one-thirds the distance from Mumbai to Pune by rail. The Kalyan culture was defined by the middle-class mindset; Maharashtrian ethos; mixed populace of Maharashtrians, South Indians, and few others; and presence of distinctly small-town amenities.

But one thing of repute in Kalyan was a local brand of vada-paav called as Khidkivada (meaning window vada). I am calling it a brand, because it satisfies all the conditions of the definition of a brand, which I learnt much later from business literature. A brand stands for a promise and is played out through its attributes that consistently deliver the promise of the brand.

 

Undoubtedly, Khidkivada is a shining example of a brand created in 1968, when it opened as a household venture with the wada being sold out of a window. Hence, the name.

Here’s the website: http://www.khidkivada.com/home.html

 
I can bet my last shirt and vouch that Khidkivada represents the top benchmark in all vadapaavdom. Its mixture is still a trade secret and is patent-pending and the name is trademarked since 1991. It now has outlets in Kalyan, Dombivli, and Pune. The secret mixture is available for sale and you can attempt a do-it-yourself (DIY) on the vada or make many other things out of it. The unique mixture reportedly lasts for 6 months without a change in flavor.

You will never get a Khidkivada that is cold because it turns around so fast that a lot of 25-30 vadas won’t last longer than 10 minutes. Served in a piece of newspaper with dry garlic chutney, the hallowed combination would give you a gustatory sensation that would transport you to stratospheric heights of gastronomic bliss.

 

The lore and lure of Khidkivada is reason enough to make a trip alone to Kalyan. You just need to hail an auto outside the station and ask to be taken straight to Khidkivada.

 

(pictures source: www.khidkivada.com)
- ed