Pav Bhaji is Indian fast food. My personal recipe

ATAll of us are more or less familiar with American fast food. For most, when the word fast food is mentioned, Coca-Cola, french fries and stuffed hamburger buns immediately pop up in their memory. There is no doubt that such food is considered of little health benefit, but today's conversation is not about that. I wonder what comes to mind when you hear the phrase "Indian fast food"?

Maybe someone will remember a couple of dishes. For example, pani-puri, she is a fuchka, which can be safely called fast food, or cottage cheese balls chur-mur. Well, many Indians just love potatoes with buns. Therefore, today I offer you my recipe for the famous Indian fast food. Pav Bhaji.

The name of the dish in English is written as Pav Bhaji, where "pav" is a small bun, and "bhaji" is a vegetable puree with spices and seasonings, half of which is just potatoes.

My Pav Bhaji Recipe

First I want to say that there are more than a dozen recipes for this dish in various variations, and the order of its preparation also differs. So, do not be embarrassed if you notice somewhere a different set of components or a sequence in the preparation of a dish. The proportions and set of vegetables in this recipe can be changed, they are not a dogma.

We will need the following ingredients:

1. Small lean buns - at the rate of about two pieces per adult.
2. Butter 85% fat content - approximately 70-90 grams.
3. Potatoes - 2-3 pieces.
4. Carrots - half the volume of potatoes.
5. Brain peas - 2-3 handfuls. You can use both ice cream and fresh and even canned.
6. Cauliflower - about a handful. Optional, not required.
7. String beans - about a handful.
8. Onions are not hot - 2-3 heads of medium size.
9. Bulgarian pepper - half of the fruit. We take not red pepper, but green. Optional, not required.
10. Ripe red tomatoes - 2 pieces.
11. Zira - one pinch.
12. Lime - about 5 small fruits.
13. Coriander greens - a small bunch.
14. Ground red pepper - two pinches.
15. Seasoning Pav Bhaji Masala - 1 tablespoon. Highly desirable. Some recommend, in its absence, to prepare the seasoning according to the recipe yourself, but I advise you to simply buy ready-made seasoning in advance, since it contains quite a lot of components in certain proportions.

How to cook Pav Bhaji

• Boil potatoes, cauliflower, beans and carrots in one pan until tender.
• Heat two tablespoons of butter in a deep frying pan. Add onion and fry. The onion may not be finely chopped. Sprinkle the contents of the pan with cumin. Next, add half the volume of peas, bell pepper and fry again.
• Finely chop and add tomatoes. The turn of red ground pepper has come. Keep in mind that the pepper should not be spicy, it should give saturation to the color of the dish. Salt to taste and bring the dish to a puree state.
• Without fanaticism, crush the boiled potatoes and carrots, add this puree to the mixture in the pan and mix well.
• Add one tablespoon of Pav Bhaji Masala seasoning and a tablespoon of butter. Sprinkle the dish with green peas.

The dish is almost ready. It remains only to serve it to the table in the appropriate way. And more on that below.

How to serve Pav Bhaji buns with vegetable puree

To serve Pav Bzhadzhi to the table, cut the buns horizontally and lightly grease their inner surface with butter. Then lightly brown them in a frying pan until a light golden crust forms. We chop the onion, cut the lime fruits into slices and remove the seeds from them.

Put the buns on a plate, and the finished mashed potatoes next to it. Sprinkle mashed potatoes with chopped onion, pour lime juice. You can also sprinkle with finely chopped herbs. They eat mashed potatoes without the use of cutlery, grabbing it with slices of a bun, as it should be in the traditional Indian style.

I recommend watching a short video, as in India this dish is cooked on the street. The recipe is slightly different, but the dish is the same! You can try to make it according to the recipe of a street cook.