1teaspoonkashmiri chilli powderor freshly pounded 1-2 dry deseeded red chilies – the latter works much better and imparts a beautiful orange color to the bhaji
1teaspoonturmeric powder
1.5 cups wateror the broth or stock of the cooked veggies, add a required
salt as required
1 cupgrated paneeror small paneer cubes (cottage cheese)
Boil all the vegetables except onions, tomatoes and capsicum in a 3 litre pressure cooker adding water just about covering the veggies.
When the pressure falls on its own in the cooker then only open the lid.
Strain the water from the vegetables and reserve the vegetable stock or broth aside.
Mash the vegetables lightly and keep aside. Don’t make a puree.
Alternatively, you can also mash when making the bhaji.
In a frying pan or kadai or a large tava/griddle or skillet, add butter.
When the butter melts, add cumin seeds. When they splutter, add the chopped onions.
Saute the onions stirring often till they soften.
Now add the ginger-garlic paste. Saute for a few seconds or till the raw aroma of the ginger-garlic disappears.
Add chopped green chilies and saute for a minute.
Add the tomatoes and saute them stirring often till they become soft and mushy.
Add the chopped capsicum. Now add the kashmiri chilli powder, turmeric powder and pav bhaji masala.
Mix the spice powders well. Saute for few minutes till the capsicum becomes a little soft.
You don’t need to make the capsicum very soft. A little crunch is alright.
Now add the mashed vegetables.
Combine the mashed vegetables well with the masala base.
Add 1.5 cups of reserved vegetable stock or water. Mix well. Keep on stirring and let the bhaji gravy simmer for 7 to 8 minutes till it thickens to a medium consistency.
If the gravy becomes too dry or thick and then add some water.
Once you get the medium consistency, then add the grated or cubed paneer. Mix well and switch off the heat.
To make buttered pavs
Slice the pavs. On a flat pan or skillet, heat some butter.
When the butter melts, keep the pav on the melted butter so that it absorbs the butter and fry for a minute. Toast the second side and also pan fry for a minute.
If you want to make the pav crisp, fry for a few more minutes both the sides. Serve the pavs hot with the bhaji.
Serving the bhaji
When done, pour the hot bhaji in bowls or plates. Garnish with coriander leaves and grated paneer.
You can top the bhaji with some butter, if you like it. In fact, with more butter, the bhaji tastes very good.
Serve the paneer pav bhaji hot with the buttered pavs together with a side of finely chopped onions and chopped lime or lemon.
Notes
The spice powders can be easily adjusted to suit your taste.
If you don’t want to add butter, then you can also make the bhaji in oil.
If you don’t have pav bhaji masala, then add garam masala. I have made bhaji with garam masala only and nobody could tell the difference. In this scenario, just add some dry mango powder/amchur to the bhaji to get that slightly sour taste. Quantity is 1 or 2 tsp garam masala with 1 tsp amchur/dry mango powder. If you are adding this then don’t add the ½ tsp garam masala mentioned above. That is only meant if you are using pav bhaji masala.