Express Meals 2 :Pav Bhaji

Somewhere in between the avalanche of entries, I realised that all the express recipes I had planned to blog got sidelined and are still sitting on the shelf. Its great to have plans but not so easy to get around to executing it. So while I struggle with the round up for the Express Cooking Event, here is one of my express meals...Pav Bhaji..

Pav Bhaji is not at all familiar to a true Keralite and I attribute my fondness for it to my stay in amchi Mumbai some light years ago. Those were the worry free days of long commutes and fun weekends hitting the city for a dinner and a movie.

Pav Bhaji falls somewhere in between a dinner and a snack..a heavy snack in fact before the movie. The sight itself is very appealing....The vegetables simmering on a large wide cast iron skillet, with pavs getting toasted on the corners, with the vendor adding more and more butter and breaking down the clumps, making the tak tak sound each time.
There the overwhelming fragrance of butter permeated the pav and the mashed vegetables and as if that wasn't enough, they placed a blob of the rich stuff on the bhaji just before serving! Call it junk food or street food Indian ishtyle but its actually a very wholesome meal..Buttered Pav or bread and a whole lot of vegetables slow cooked with spices and smashed together, topped with fresh cilantro, raw onions and lime wedges. Without realising, everybody ends up eating all kinds of veggies!

I tried out a lot of pav bhaji recipes before settling for Nupur's version of it which I feel comes closest to the Bombaiyya taste I was searching for. Thanks Nupur!
So just follow the recipe as is: Nupur's Pav Bhaji
So how express is it?
No onions, so no peeling and cutting. Ideally should be slow cooked but coarsely chopped all the veggies and let it cook all together in a pressure cooker while sauteing the peppers and spices in a pan simultaneously. The tomatoes got blended for a second to break them down.
Sometimes I use canned crushed tomatoes instead. After the tomato puree has thickened, I added the cooked veggies to the pan and let it simmer for 15 minutes on medium heat. Serve with hot buttered Pav or as shown here, whole wheat burger buns. It really doesn't take more than 20-30 minutes.

On another note, Who doesn't like awards? The blogosphere is agog with awards nowadays and its good to see them to keep the morale up...all in good fun..
I gotto keep smiling as I got the Rocking Gal Award from not one but three fellow blogger friends!! Viji of Malabar Ruchi, Mandira of Ahaar and Sra of When my soup came alive think so..:)So I didn't really miss the Rock n Roll era, did I?
SO I would like to pass this onto:
Nabeela of Trial n Error
Nandita of Saffron Trail
Shn of Mishmash


Then Daily Musings went on to award me the schmooze award What is that, I wondererd...schmooze.. the word is so wrong...when I checked it up, it saidSlang... To converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection!!!....(I thot it was a weird one, saying I buttered up pavs till I read what it was about..):)Knowing Indosungod, I had to find out the real meaning of this funny award... Now I am humbled and a bit pink too!!

The Power of Schmooze Award is for bloggers who “effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello - all the while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship.”

This award has probably been awarded to Asha, but I feel like conferring it again on her..
Asha of Foodie's Hope.
Jyo of Curry Bazaar
Chandrika of Akshayapatra