Eat With The Pandits

Mumbai’s best kept open secret! You can eat pav bhaji anywhere in the world, but nothing comes close to the original that you can get only in Mumbai, till now!

My love affair with Bombay style pav bhaji dates back to when I was a little girl. My family lived pretty close to the Juhu Beach, so Saturday evenings a stroll to Juhu beach was a fixed thing. The beach wasn’t as crowded as it is today, and the water wasn’t as dirty. Good ‘ol days! The stroll usually ended with my dad and I building castles in the sand, and then get thoroughly wet in the ocean, much to my mother’s chagrin! 

Once we were done with our shenanigans, it was time to satiate the hunger that would suddenly creep up on us, without warning! We would be ravenous and the only thing good enough to satisfy us would be the butter loaded pav bhaji readily available at the countless stalls. The heady aroma of maska pav and tomato loaded bhaji still drives us crazy! 

One rainy afternoon, I was really missing the Juhu beach pav bhaji but there was no way I could get my hands on it. So I decided to make it at home. At first, it was nowhere close to the taste I remembered, but over a few iterations I have been able to get as close to the taste as possible. 
The recipe is pretty straight forward and pretty simple to make. 

Ingredients for Bambaiya Pav Bhaji Recipe

• Tomatoes 4 large or 6 medium, use nice ripe ones,finely chopped 
• 4 medium sized potatoes, boiled and grated
• ¼ of a cauliflower grated
• 2 medium onions finely chopped
•  2 tsps ginger garlic paste
• 1 medium green capsicum finely chopped
• 3-4 green chillies finely chopped 
• 1/4 cup fresh coriander, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup green peas boiled
• 2 lemons
• Oil as required 
• Salt to taste 
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Pav Bhaji masala 
• 1 tsp kashmiri chilly powder
• Butter ( all yours! :) )

The Making

• Heat oil in a pan and add the onions. Sauté till they turn brown.
• Next add the green chillies and ginger garlic paste. Saute well.
• Add half the tomatoes to the pan and cook on medium heat and saute until the oil separates to the sides of the pan.
• Add the chopped capsicum,grated cauliflower, grated boiled potatoes, boiled peas and one cup of water. Bring this to a boil and simmer for around 10 minutes. Use the back of your ladle to mash the vegetables together as they cook.
• At this point, add the kashmiri chilly powder and the pav bhaji masala. Add salt to taste. 
• Add the rest of the tomatoes. Keep cooking the bhaji on medium heat. Make sure you keep stirring continuously so the bhaji doesn’t burn or stick to the bottom of the pan.
• Continue to simmer till the bhaji attains a beautiful orange red colour.
• Now this is my favourite part. Add some butter to the pan. The definition of some is your call :) and stir well. The addition of butter at this point gives the bhaji a beautiful texture and of course loads of that buttery taste
• Serve the bhaji garnished with some finely chopped onions, some finely chopped coriander leaves and a generous dollop of butter. Serve hot with some buttered pan fried pav and some lemon wedges on the side.

And there… Juhu Beach has been served!