Pav bhaji is basically a curried vegetable roll. The filling, or bhaji, is made fom all sorts of vegetables and flavoured with beautiful, pungent spices that absorb into the mixture. The pav, or Indian equivalent of a bread roll, is a small white bread roll, but usually quite sweet, similar in taste to a Maccas burger bun, which is coated in butter or ghee and lightly toasted. Combined, the two make a party in your mouth happen...
Ingredients (makes about 16 small rolls):
3 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into a simialr size to the potato
1 tbs oil
1/2 cup capsicum, finely chopped
Finely chopped chilli (optional, if you like it hot)
1/2 cup peas
1/2 cup corn kernels
1 tsp minced ginger
1 cup diced tomatoes
1 heaped tbs pav bhaji masala (this can be bought at any Indian grocery store)
1 tsp butter
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp chilli powder
Salt to taste
Lemon juice and finely sliced onions to serve
1. Boil the potatoes and carrots, and then mash them.
2. Heat the oil in a kadai. Once it is hot, add the capsicum and chilli and saute. After a minute, add the ginger and continue sauteing.
3. Add the tomatoes and mix well. Allow to cook until the tomatoes have become soft.
4. Add the chilli powder, turmeric and pav bhaji masala and mix well.
5. Add the peas and corn to this mixture.
6. Lastly, add the mashed vegetables, butter and salt. All the mixture to cook well, so the flavours can combine properly together. The mixture should be a thick, paste like consistency. If it is too dry, add some water; if it is too runny, allow it to cook on a high heat so that it dries off. Keep tasting the mixture to make sure it is the right balance of tangy (tomatoes) and spicy (pav bhaji masala). Once done, remove from the heat.
7. Take the bread rolls, cut them in half and smear the inside and outside with butter or margaring and put them in an oven to toast lightly. This can also be done on a non stick frying pan or tawa on the stove.
8. Once the bread is done, fill it with the pav bhaji mix and a squeeze of lemon juice. If you like, raw onions can also be added.
Note: I didn't have the correct bread rolls, so I just used wholemeal rolls we had in the fridge. Works just as well!
Ingredients (makes 12):
2 and 1/2 cups self raising flour
3/4 cup raw sugar
Handful of chopped walnuts (I have no idea of the exact measurement, but let's just say 1/2 cup) 2 cups milk
3 overripe bananas
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Line a muffin tin with patty pans. You could grease them, but I hate washing muffin tins, so I always use patty pans.
3. Combine the flour, sugar and nuts in a bowl.
4. In a blender, whizz up the milk, banana and vanilla essence.
5. Add the wet mixture to the dry and mix well. The batter will be a very heavy, thick consistency.
6. Spoon the batter into the muffin tray and place in the oven for 25 minutes.
Ingredients (serves 1 – coz I eat a lot!):
250g tomatoes, diced (I usually use a punnet of cherry tomatoes, which have been halved)
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 dried chillies
6 or 7 curry leaves
1 whole black cardamom (bara elachi)
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp chilli powder
Salt to taste
1 cup of rice, cooked
1 tbs oil
1. Heat the oil in a kadai.
2. Once oil is heated, temper it with the mustard seeds, dried chilli, curry leaves and cardamom pod for about 30 secs.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes and mix well until the mixture has become mushy.
4. Add the garam masala, chilli powder and salt and mix thoroughly.
5. Add the cooked rice and remove from the heat. Mix the rice and tomato mixture well so that all the rice is coated.
6. Serve hot with yogurt.
I am a bit of an obsessive groupie. Back in the 90’s I was a massive cricket groupie, stalking all the visiting cricket teams at the hotels and net practices… these days I stalk chefs, and with the internet at my disposal, the job is so much easier! One of my favourite chefs to stalk is Kurma Dasa. I first discovered him when I was in primary school, on SBS TV where he hosted his own cooking show. Then I got super excited to find out he was actually from the Melbourne Hare Krishna temple and I even got to meet him!! Now the obsessive groupie in me has once again come to the forefront and in about a month and a half, Bazza and I are going to be doing a cooking course with him! You have no idea how excited I am!!!
Anyway, as a frequent visitor of his blog, I regularly peruse through his recipes, and try out various things he makes. He hasn’t let me down so far, and this strawberry cream shortcake was no exception :-)
Ingredients (serves 6 – 8):
The cake:
1 1/4 cups self-raising flour
A pinch of salt
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons caster sugar
1⁄3 cup ground walnuts (I ground mine in a coffee grinder)
About 1⁄3 cup buttermilk
The cream topping:
300ml double cream
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk powder
The remaining topping ingredients:
4 tablespoons strawberry jam
250g ripe, strawberries cut in half
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200˚C.
2. Mix together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar and ground nuts.
3. Pour in three-quarters of the buttermilk and gather the mixture into a soft manageable dough. If too dry, add some more buttermilk. Knead the dough until it is smooth.
4. Line a 20cm pie dish with baking paper and press the dough in, ensuring that the sides of the dish are also well covered.
5. Place the cake in the oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until pale golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool. Carefully remove the cake from the dish and peel away the baking paper.
6. Combine the cream, sugar, vanilla and powdered milk in a mixing bowl and whip it until the cream stands in soft peaks.
7. Spread the strawberry jam over the inside surface of the cake, then spread the cream over it, and finally top with the strawberries. Put in the fridge to chill for a few hours and then serve.
