Creation on 9/11 completing decade... Pav Bhaji

Confused as to why is Thotaji Baawarchi dedicating a recipe on such a tragic days' anniversary!!! Pav Bhaji means a combination of different kind of vegetables cooked together to be enjoyed as a great meal with butter toasted bread. Which is just like the way even after such a tragic scene in our lives, all of us come together forgetting our distances and difference to be one in another's sorrow as well as happiness to carry on with life with better future to look for.

Wishing a safe and prosperous life for each and every one and with prays for all those deceased and their family members, I wish to go ahead and give the secrets of this awesome recipe.

Pav Bhaji

Ingredients - (For four people)

For butter toasted bread -

Pav (Indian Bread) - 8 nos

Salted Butter - 4 tablespoons

For Bhaji (Vegetable Mixture) -

Potatoes - 200 gms

Cauliflower - 100 gms

Green Peas - 50 gms

Carrots - 50 gms

Onions - 100 gms

Capsicum - 50 gms

Tomatoes - 200 gms

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Chilli Powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Pav Bhaji Masala Powder - 1 1/2 teaspoon

Black Salt - 1/2 teaspoon

Butter - 4 tablespoon

Garlic - 4 Cloves

Red Chillies - 4 nos

Green Chillies - 4 nos

Salt - To taste

(Optional as Black salt and Pav Bhaji Masala would actually provide the required amount of salt taste)

For Serving -

Onion - 1 large

Lemon - 1 no

Coriander - 1 tablespoon

Method to prepare -

It's one of the most easiest and simplest way of making Pav Bhaji and I think you could make it even more simple with your own innovation.

• Cut the potatoes, cauliflower and carrots into small pieces, post that boil them till soft and mash them into a coarse paste

• Chop the capsicum and boil it along with green peas, post that just mix it up with mixture of potatoes, cauliflower and carrots

• Chop onions and tomatoes into very small pieces or if I have to say it in my style; "cut them into such small pieces that you might have to look up for them through a microscope"

• Now, soak red chillies in some warm water for about 15 minutes along and then blend them into a fine paste along with garlic and green chillies

• Add 4 tablespoons of butter to a pan and heat till it melts off

• Now add the garlic chilli paste to the butter and saute till it turns golden in colour

• Add the chopped onions along with black salt as this would make onions fry faster (Secret - Onions actually start loosing moisture if salt is added to them making it easier to fry quicker)

• Once onions are fried well add tomatoes to it and fry till oil oozes out and the mixture is totally cooked

• Its finally time for you to add black salt, chilli powder, turmeric as well as pav bhaji masala powder

to the mixture and cook for another 3-5 minutes

• Now time for the mixture to be add to the onion and tomato fry and cook till done (When I say done it means it starts smelling great because there is probably only 30 seconds gap between the dish moving from smelling great to burnt... LOL... :P)

• Once cooked take it off the stove and add another tablespoon of butter and sprinkle with chopped coriander

• Now heat a frying pan with little butter and toast the pav by cutting it into two halves and toast it on both sides

• Serve in a plate with bhaji, toasted pav along with some chopped onions and lemon wedge on the side

• Best way to consume it, mix the chopped onions with bhaji and squeeze the lemon on it and enjoy with toasted pav

Enjoy it to the fullest and as always please leave your comments or feedback on either of the social media platforms, which I use.

- Thotaji Baawarchi :)