Pav bhaji ... an Indian street food

Pav bhaji ... an Indian street food, originally uploaded by lorises.

Well, pav bahaji is probably not going to disappear from the indian street vendors soon....yet I some time worry what will happen to the locally grown street food or fast food industries in India...Will multinational corporations gobble them up too?

Recipe here....

cauliflower - half of the flower head

Carrots- 2-3

mid size golden potatoes- 2

peas: fresh or frozen - 1 cup

green beans: 5-10 chopped small

onions: 2 medium sized and finely chopped

ginger/garlic: 2 table spoons

coriander/cilantro: few sprigs

butter: 100 gms

oil: 2tbs

salt: to taste

tomatoes: 3 mediun sized ones chopped finely

pav bhaji masala: 3 TBSp

Boil all the vegetables together except peas. I generally do it in the pressure cooker, take them out of the cooker and mashed them.

In a dutch oven or wok/kadhai fry the onions, ginger garlic paste. Then add the tomotoes and the pav bhaji masala mix. add the peas at this point and fry them. Now you can add boiled vegetable mix.

Let them cook for some time. Serve with chopped coriander leaves, onions and butter and dinner rolls.



p.s. Pav bahaji spice mix one can get in any Indian grocery store in th

North African style Vegetarian couscous

 

This is a couscous recipe modified from Mark Bittman's book of international recipes. Here I used two cups of couscous boiled or steamed and all the ingredients that were available at the time of cooking. I made it mildly hot for my kids.
Vegetables:
One pack of frozen artichoke hearts from Trader Joe's
Tomatoes: 1 chopped
Red Onion: 2 tbsp
Leek: 1/4 cup
garlic 4 cloves
ginger: 1/2 tsp
green chilies: 1
Paprika or kashmiri chili powder: 1/2 tsp
turmeric: 1/8 of tsp
cloves: 2
saffron thread: a few of them soaked in warm milk
salt: to taste
Olive oil: 2 TBSP

Use a wok or a kadhai. In the pan add olive oil. When it is hot then add onions, leek, garlic, ginger, cloves green chilies, stir fry them for few minutes. when the onions are translucent add turmeric and paprika. Add the tomatoes and frozen vegetables. fry them for few minutes and then add the couscous. Mix them well in low heat and serve hot.

Chapli kabab with buffalo meat

Chapli kabab with buffalo meat, originally uploaded by lorises.

Eating buffalo (American Bison) meat is an acquired taste. You need to get used to the strong meatiness that comes with it. But if you are used to eating beef then it is ok... According to Amearican Heart Association, it is better than eating beef since they are much more lean than the stall fed cows. My friend Chandra commented on Facebook that if the European settlers tamed buffaloes for their source of meat instead of importing cows from Europe, North American landscape would not have been such an ecological disaster! Anyway, I thought of spicing up my buffalo burger that I bought from Trader Joes few nights ago. I used Chaplli kabab masala powder from Shan (a Pakistani spice mix company) which one can get in any Indian grocery stores in the USA and used onion, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, green chillies and coriander leaves(cilantro)to make chapli kabab. It came out well, I must say....

Recipe:

Buffalo meat ground: 2lb
Shan Chapli kabab masala: 4 tbsp
Onion: red, 1/2 cup minced
Garlic: 2 cloves minced
ginger: 1/2 tsp minced
tomato: i chopped well
green chilli: 1 or 2 nicley minced
Cilantro (coriander leaves) some
oil: to fry
1 Egg to mix with the mixture

Add all of these together and mix well. In a pan fry them well. Use burger buns, mayo, tomato slices, letuce leaves to serve.

Mustard fish curry any one? Recipe is here....

Mustard fish curry any one? Recipe is here...., originally uploaded by lorises.

Mustard fish curry any one? Recipe is here....

I cooked fish curry in mustard paste other day after a long time! Accompanied vegetarian dishes are masoor dal (red lentil), dhonka'r dalna (split pea lentil cake in a curry) and brussels's sprout with bengali five spice mix.

Mustard fish curry recipe:

Any kind of freshwater fish or shad/cod/ mahimahi: 2 lbs
Mustard paste:
Yellow mustard seeds: 3 table spoons
Brown mustard seeds: 2 table spoon
Salt: for your taste
Little bit of oil ( mustard oil is good, if you can stand it!)
Little water to grind

Grind all of them in paste to in a small grinder.

Oil to cook: One or two tbsp
green chillies: two of them ( more if you want spicy)
salt: to taste and marinade the fish
Turmeric: to marinade the fish

Wash and marinade the fish for 5-10 minutes before cooking.

In a Kadhai or Wok add some oil and let it get hot. Add the marinated fish. Fry both sides very lightly. Add turmeric powder, green chillies and salt.

Now add the mustard paste with water and let it boil. Please do not fry the mustard paste. It makes the paste bitter. It should be dry curry not very watery and remove it after 10 minutes or so.