Impromptu Pav Bhaji dinner...

Thursday afternoon I decided to go to the nearest gujju(Gujarati) grocery store to do some grocery shopping. Ashish, my colleague also wanted to go with me to buy some food for lunch. Once inside the store I quickly picked the things I needed for home. I was thinking of making pav bhaji over the weekend so had to pick a pav bhaji masala mix. Browsing through the masala isle, I was looking for my current favourite Shaan pav bhaji masala, a brand of spice that is available here. Seeing me hold the packet in my hand Ashish said sarcastically "You know I don't buy any of these Shaan spices as they are ....".  I said I know but I don't care where it is made as long as it makes my pav bhaji savory and mouth watering.

Last time I made it was some 2 years back when the local mallu (Malayali) church group were visiting my home for Christmas carol. Its a tradition to offer the carol group food/snacks and donations to show gratitude for visiting the house and singing those carol songs. 

Both Jee and I have this north Indian connection as we were born and bought up in Bhilai, so we are used to both south and north indian style food. We can have a poha for breakfast, meen curry(fish curry) with rice for lunch and then roti(Indian flat bread made of wheat) and sabji(mixed vegetable curry) for dinner.

Anyways back to the carol thing, so considering the north Indian link I usually make pakoras and chai as they usually visit us during tea time. For a change 2 years back I decided to make pav bhaji. Oh yeah usually the caroling starts here during the lent time and so the food/snack should be strictly vegetarian. I was skeptical about its reception when I was making it but in the end it was all over and hard core mallus were raving about its taste even though they didn't know what it was.

When I reached home after work and we were storing all the grocery items in our little pantry, we thought of making pav bhaji for dinner. Jee rushed to the nearest grocery store to buy some hot dog buns to be used as pav for our pav bhaji. I added all the veggies(potatoes, cauliflower, bell pepper, peas, carrot, or any other of your choice) in a cooker with half cup of water, meanwhile I heated a pan and added a dollop of smart balance(butter substitute) and tossed in some diced onions, ginger and garlic. When the onions are golden brown, in goes two diced tomatoes and 3 tablespoons of Shaan masala. You can also add more according to your taste. 

Bhaji

Next I added those cooked veggies into the mix and mash the whole mix with a potato masher to get the desired consistency. 


I also toasted the pavs after I applied some liberal amount of smart balance on them. Voilà pav bhaji ready....

Pav

Just 'coz Jee wanted to show off his paintings...can you spot them?

Dinner ready