Easy Mumbai Street Style Pav Bhaji Recipe

By Apurvi Bansal

Pav Bhaji is the one of the beloved snack that you get in every street food market in India, making it at home isn’t so hard also you can make the same delicious bhaji at home with way less butter. I think with my Recipe it is safe to say 1/4th quantity also its full of veggies that makes it naturally healthy also, it becomes so much easy this way to feed your kids vegetable.

Its a complete Vegetarian Recipe with abundance of Vegetable in it, you can add veggies according to your liking also add some that you dislike this Bhaji will make them utterly delicious, believe me.

Making Ladi Pav or Pav for Bhaji is super simple just follow these simple steps shown in Video and you will not believe how easy it is, it will make you wonder why have you been buying them from market all this time, the Pav I have baked our pillowy soft with perfect Crumb.

I have shaped them to give it a party look where you need bite size snacks but you can use this Recipe to make Ladi Pav the traditional way just weigh each Dough ball of about 65-85gm depending on the size you need.

Ingredients-

Pav-

142gm Warm Milk

1tsp Fine Sugar

1tsp Instant Yeast, (3gm)

168gm All purpose Flour.

1/4tsp Salt

1tbsp soft Butter

Bhaji Recipe-

1/2kg Brinjal (baingan)

1/2kg Bottle gourd (lauki)

1 Carrot (gaajar) 

1/4 Capsicum (shimla mirch)

5-6 French beans (phali)

40gm Cabbage (patta gobhi)

1tsp Salt

1/4tsp Turmeric 

1/4 glass of Water

1tsp Ghee or Flavourless Oil

25gm Butter

1/2tsp of Mustard seed (rai) 

1 sprig Curry Leaves

1/4tsp of Red chilli powder 

1 chopped onion

2 Tomatoes, Medium size and chopped

1/2tbsp Coriander Powder

1-1/2tbsp of Pav bhaji masala

5-6tbsp of Tamarind water (imli ka paani)

2 medium size boiled Potatoes

Method:

• For making Pav in a bowl take Warm Milk that is if you put your finger in you will not feel any discomfort. Add fine sugar and mix to dissolve it, this sugar is food for yeast and it will help in yeast blooming.
• Now Add Instant Yeast and mix. Now cover it with a plate and let it rest for 10 minutes so that it can activate.
• After activating the mixture should become this frothy if it isn’t discard it and make a new mixture.
• Now Add All purpose Flour, salt, it will help in controlling yeast activity. Now add soft Butter.
• Now using a fork bring everything together before transferring it on kitchen counter to knead.
• First bring everything together and start kneading the dough by stretching it by pushing it then bringing it together, 
• Repeat this pushing and pulling the dough, you can use both your hands,
• Hold the dough by one hand at one corner and push the other end stretching it by other hand.
• Add more milk if the dough feels dry add it 1tsp at a time and knead the dough to mix it completely.
• Continue to knead the dough till window pane test is passed, in this test a small ball of dough is taken and stretched into a square shape. Keep on stretching until it becomes a thin film in middle without breaking. The dough must be thin enough to pass light through it. 
• It will take about 10-15 minutes of kneading to reach this stage alternatively you can use an electric kneader to knead your dough.
• Now bring the dough together use both your hands such that they form a cup shape then gently slide the dough on the counter this way creating a smooth surface on top as well as simultaneously sealing the dough from bottom thus giving us this Smooth Dough.

• Sprinkle some flour in the bowl and keep your dough inside it cover with a cling film or kitchen towel and let the dough has its first rise till it doubles in size.
• Generally take about 45 minutes to one and half hour depending on whether.
• Dust some flour on your working station then transfer the dough on it.
• Now de-gas the dough by poking it using finger tips and roughly giving it rectangular shape,
• Then roll it into a log starting from one end tugging its edges in to seal the log properly, at last pinch the end of the dough properly sealing it.
• Roll it on the counter to form a log. Then weigh dough to form two-bite size pav I am weighing 12gm of dough for each pav.
• Now using One hand first bring all the corners in and pinching them to seal them then slide the dough ball on the counter tugging the sealed edges at the base while getting the smooth surface on top.
• Then gently roll it by cupping your hands and you'll have smooth dough ball.
• Shape rest of the dough ball in similar fashion.
• Place the Pav dough balls on the baking tray you are going to bake in and leave two finger space between them, I am arranging them in a circle. 
• Similarly make few single bite Pav for that weigh 6gm of dough for each Pav
• Then shapen them similarly to what we did earlier, seal the edges by pinching, then sliding on the counter using your thumb and index and middle finger then roll it to achieve a smooth dough ball.
• Shape them all similarly.
• Then place them on the baking tray and cover it with a kitchen towl and let rest for 30-45 minutes this is our final proofing before baking.

• In the meanwhile let us make our Bhaji for that in a pressure cooker add chopped vegetable, Salt, Turmeric. 
• Now Add Water and close the lid, let cook for 4 whistle on high flame then switch the flame off and let it de pressurise naturally.
• Now transfer to a clean bowl making sure to strain as much water as you can since more water means more cooking time hence, strain the veggies.
• Once they are slightly cool with the help of a stick blender mash veggies till they are a bit chunky this helps in cooking process though this step is optional.
• Now in a Wok or any Non-stick pan add Ghee or flavourless Oil
• Then add Butter total butter used in this Recipe is 25gm but Add it in parts.
• Once its melted add Mustard seed (rai) and let it crackle, then, add few leaves of Curry leaves you can also add dried leaves powder if fresh ones are not available let them crackle.
• Add Red chilli powder and Add chopped onion if you eat it saute it till its translucent .
• Add chopped Tomatoes saute a little then add salt be careful we added it while boiling veggies also.
• Add Coriander Powder and mix. You can also mash the tomatoes by the back of your ladle and cook them till soft and mushy. Now add my boiled veggies mixture and give it a stir.
• Now Add Pav bhaji masala I am using the ready made one that are available in market. After mixing the masala add Tamarind water (imli ka paani) I had soaked Tamarind in warm water for 15 minutes then strain them.
• Now add some more butter out of the total quantity and give it a good mix.

• Mash your veggies slightly, add boiled potatoes and mash them further and mix with the masher. They will give body to our bhaji.
• Add boiled peas in last since I don’t want to mash them, gently mix and add the left over butter from 25gm of Butter.
• Mix and cover with a lid. Let it cook on low flame for 15-20 minutes.
• This is why it will be a good Idea to use a non-stick pan so that our bhaji does not stick from bottom.
• Remove the lid and stir one final time see how thick our bhaji is.
• It’s done.

• Once Pav are ready after proofing, bake in a pre heated Oven at 180C for 6-8 minutes.
• Once out of the Oven apply butter over them here, you can also use a mixture of butter and chopped coriander cilantro.