Pav Bhaji with Homemade Masala

Introduction

Pav bhaji is better understood as a method than as a fixed recipe. Potatoes give it body, a generous mix of other vegetables gives it flavour, tomato and butter make it rich, and a spoonful of pav bhaji masala does most of the seasoning. The tale usually told places its beginnings among the mill workers of nineteenth-century Mumbai, who needed a midday meal that was cheap, quick and filling, and who got it from vendors that mashed whatever vegetables they had into one pot and served it with bread, since bread was faster to hand over than a plate of rice. That practical spirit has never left the dish. In a home kitchen it translates into a firm hand with the masher and patience at the stove, because the bhaji has to cook down to a rough, spreadable thickness instead of staying in separate pieces.
What sets a Mumbai stall apart from an everyday home curry is largely handling. The vegetables are crushed while still hot, on the same broad griddle where the masala is fried, so the flavours merge as they break down. The butter goes in at several points rather than all at once, and a last sizzle of butter and masala stirred through just before serving leaves the top of each portion sharper and glossier than the rest.

Origin & Cultural Context

Few Indian street foods have an origin as well recorded as this one. Historians such as K.T. Achaya place its start in the mill districts of Mumbai, in the middle of the nineteenth century, where vendors fed workers who had almost no time to sit down with a fast lunch of mashed vegetable curry and bread. The bread itself, a soft and faintly sweet yeasted roll, reflects the city's Portuguese past, because leavened rolls and the idea of the pão reached western India through Goa and the trading posts along the Konkan coast long before such bread was common elsewhere in the country. Packaged pav bhaji masala is a twentieth-century convenience, while the method behind it, namely boiling, mashing, reducing with tomato and butter and serving alongside toasted bread, was already settled on Mumbai's streets well before anyone sold a ready-made blend. The dish has since travelled across India and abroad, yet Mumbai stays its home, and stalls there still cook it to order on huge flat tavas.

Method

1. Prep

   Make the pav bhaji masala

   Put the coriander, cumin and fennel seeds, dried chillies, cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon and black cardamom into a dry pan over low heat and toast them for 2 to 3 minutes, until the kitchen smells of them and they have darkened slightly. Spread them out until fully cold, then reduce them to a fine powder together with the amchur and chilli powder. The batch is larger than one pot of bhaji needs, so store the extra in a sealed jar for up to two months; even so, the result will taste brighter than anything made with an old packet blend.

2. Prep

   Boil the vegetables past tender

   In a pressure cooker, combine the potatoes, cauliflower, carrot, peas, one cup of water and a pinch of salt, and cook for 3 to 4 whistles. They should be soft to a degree you would never accept in another dish, because they have to mash without resistance later. Pour off the excess water but keep it, as it will loosen the bhaji afterwards, and break the vegetables up roughly while they are still warm.

3. Cook

   Soften the onions for the base

   Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in a wide pan and add the onions. Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes until soft and lightly golden. Add the ginger-garlic paste and green chillies and fry for one minute, until their raw aroma is gone, and put in the capsicum for another 2 minutes.

4. Cook

   Cook the tomatoes down fully

   Now add the tomatoes along with the turmeric, the chilli powder and 2 tablespoons of your pav bhaji masala. Keep the heat at medium and press the tomatoes against the pan with the back of your spoon as they collapse, until the mixture is thick, deep red and beginning to release oil at the edges. Expect 8 to 10 minutes. Home cooks hurry this stage more than any other, even so, tomato that is not cooked long enough is the main cause of a home bhaji that tastes thin and sharp when it should taste full.

5. Cook

   Add the mash and simmer

   Tip in the mashed vegetables with enough of the reserved cooking water, or plain water, to reach a thick but scoopable consistency. It should be looser than mashed potato and nearer to a thick curry, because it tightens as it cooks. Season with salt and let it bubble gently for 12 to 15 minutes, pressing it now and then with the masher right in the pan so that it stays rough and never becomes a puree.

6. Cook

   Round it off with butter and masala

   Mix in the rest of the masala and 2 tablespoons of butter and keep it simmering for 3 to 4 minutes more. Check the salt, chilli and masala; you want a bold spicing, a slight tomato tang and a rich, not watery, body. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice.

7. Cook

   Toast the pav until golden

   Slice each roll through the middle but leave one edge joined. Heat a griddle or wide pan, melt a knob of butter with a pinch of pav bhaji masala, and press the rolls cut-side down until golden and a little crisp at the edges, using a spatula to flatten them lightly. Work in batches so the pan remains hot and the butter does not burn.

8. Serve

   Serve at once while hot

   Ladle the bhaji into a bowl and set a cube of butter on top to melt, then add raw chopped onion and coriander. Bring it to the table with lemon wedges and the buttered pav, which doubles as the scoop. Pav bhaji should be eaten straight away, since neither its texture nor its warmth lasts long once it is plated.

Substitutions

The classic base of potato, cauliflower, pea and carrot welcomes other firm vegetables: cabbage, French beans and beetroot (for its colour) all appear in regional versions, found more in home cooking than at stalls. A good store-bought pav bhaji masala is an acceptable stand-in if you prefer not to grind your own, though the taste will be flatter and less fresh. Where pav rolls are unavailable, a soft, mildly sweet dinner roll browned in butter comes close, whereas a crusty loaf will not give the right texture.

Adjusting the Spice Level

Three things supply the heat: fresh green chillies, chilli powder, and the dried red chillies ground into the masala, so each can be tuned on its own. A milder bhaji needs fewer or no green chillies and some mild paprika in place of part of the chilli powder. To make it hotter, chop one more green chilli and stir it in with the last butter, because chilli added raw at the very end stays sharper and fresher than chilli cooked throughout.

Storage & Reheating

Storage: Store the bhaji in a sealed container in the refrigerator for as long as 3 days; it frequently tastes better the next morning once the spices have settled. Frozen in a closed container it lasts about a month, and it should thaw in the refrigerator before being warmed. Pav that has been buttered and griddled is best fresh, but plain rolls will sit at room temperature for a day or two, as soft bread generally does.

Reheating: Put the bhaji in a pan on medium-low heat, add a little water to slacken it, and stir regularly until steaming all through; a small knob of butter at the end brings back the richness that storage removes. Long stretches in the microwave can scorch the edges of a shallow dish, so use short bursts with stirring in between. Toast fresh pav for serving instead of reheating rolls that were already toasted once, as they turn tough.

Sources & Further Reading

• K.T. Achaya, "Indian Food: A Historical Companion" (Oxford University Press) — for the account of pav bhaji beginning around the 1850s among the city's mill workers.
• Lizzie Collingham, "Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors" (Oxford University Press) — for how Portuguese-Goan baking led to pav bread in western India.