Pav Bhaji (Indian Bread and Curry)

Posted On January 1, 2014

Mmmm. The smell of fresh homebaked bread is just awesome. While baking cake gives a sort of happiness when the cake rises up good and moist, baking bread is another kind of joy to see perfectly fermented dough and puffs up to the right, airy, and with a nice brown crust on top. Here is an Indian famous bread called Pav, which is popular in the western region of India. This dish is one of the popular street foods in Mumbai, India. Bhaaji is the vegetable curry dish that is served along with this bread. The first time I made this bread was a few years back. It came out so nice and beautiful and it inspired me to make it many times…

homemade Pav bread from Indian Maida (all-purpose flour).

It’s not common to have a baking oven as common kitchen equipment in Indian homes a couple of decades before. As the tandoori oven is used in northern parts of India to make Naan bread and chicken tikka. The Pav bread and cakes were only made and sold in bakeries. Nowadays, most of the modern household has an oven. It is so convenient to try out baking goodies at homes with ease.

A few months back, we invited one of our friend’s family for Sunday lunch. PavBhaji was one of the dish in the menu. Our friends B & R enjoyed the Pav bread and asked for the recipe. I should apologize I was not fast enough in posting this recipe. In the meantime, I made this as dinner for us two other times. I used different types of all-purpose flour to get the bread as close to the original one. Â I would recommend using Maida from Indian grocery store as the first choice to get closer to the original. Second better results can be obtained from German flour type 550. You may also use German flour type 405.

Here goes the recipe

Pav bread made from Indian Maida(All purpose flour).

Ingredients for Pav Bread:

1. All-purpose flour – 1kg
2. Yeast – 3 1/2 tsp(Rapid rise yeast)
3. Salt as required
4. Sugar – 7 Tbs
5. Butter or Margarine – 50gms
6. Water to make the dough
7. Milk or egg white – a little to brush on the bread.

Method for Pav Bread:

1. Mix all-purpose flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a bowl. Slowly add some water and mix it like a tight dough.

2. Add the fat and slowly incorporate and knead into the dough.

3. Keep is dough in the warm place in the kitchen and let it sit for 1 hour or until the dough rises. Some yeast make take a few hours to rise the dough.

4. After an hour, punch down the fermented dough and knead a little.

5. Place a baking sheet and apply some butter on the sheet.

6. Make small balls of dough, arrange it in the baking sheet with a little space between them, like it is  in the below picture.

7. Leave again in a warm place to rise for the second time. It may take one hour approx..or wait until you see nicely puffed up balls.

8. Brush the puffed up balls with milk or egg whites to get nice brown color on top when baked.

9. Preheat the oven to 170C and bake it for 12-15 min in the medium rack at  160C. You may see a nice brown crust on top once baked.

10. The brown shell is a bit hard and when you knock on it, you can hear a sound and in fact, this means the bread is baked perfectly. Take out the tray and allow it to cool for a couple of hours and the hard shell may eventually become soft.

Ingredients for Bhaji:

1. Oil – 2 tbs
2. Pav Bhaji store-bought masala – 2 tbs
3. Chiili powder – 1tsp
4. Corriander powder – 2 tsp
5. Turmeric – 1/4 tsp
6. Salt to taste
7. Onion – 1 large (finely chopped)
8. Tomatoes – 4 (finely chopped)
9. Bell pepper – 1 large finely chopped
10. Green frozen peas – 1/2 cup
11. Boiled and skinless mashes potatoes  from – 5 medium-sized potatoes
12. Butter – 5o gms
13. Ketchup – 2 Tbs
14. Ginger garlic paste – 2 tbs
15. Coriander for garnishing and serving
16. Lemon for garnishing and serving
17. Finely chopped onions for garnishing and serving

Method for Bhaji:.

1. Heat the pan and add oil. Add the onions and saute until it becomes soft.

2. Add ginger-garlic paste to onions and fry for a couple of minutes until the raw smell goes away.

3. Add bell pepper followed by tomatoes and green peas one by one and saute it.

4. Â Add all the masala from 2 to 5 from the ingredients and mix it for a couple of minutes. Add little water and cover and cook this mixture for 20 minutes in a medium flame.

5. Now add the ketchup and mashed potato, salt and let it cook for another 1o mins. time to time add butter and incorporate it to the Bhaji.

6. Serve it in a bowl with freshly chopped onion, coriander leaves, and lemon.

For better taste apply butter on both sides of bread and lightly toss it in the griddle and serve it with Bhaji. Sprinkle few drops of lemon on the curry and some chopped onions and coriander.

This pictures shown above are made from German all-purpose flour type 550 (Mehl-550)

Enjoy fresh bakes at your home 🙂

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