Before You Start
The story usually told about pav bhaji places its beginnings among the textile mill workers of Mumbai in the 1850s and 1860s, who needed a lunch that was quick, cheap and filling, and the dish still follows that practical reasoning: boil the vegetables, crush them together into a single thick curry, and eat it with bread because bread is quicker than a plate of rice. Strictly speaking the bhaji is a method more than a fixed recipe, with potatoes giving it body, a pile of other vegetables adding flavour and some nutrition, tomatoes and butter supplying richness, and a spoonful of masala that does the real work of seasoning. In a home kitchen the best results come from pressing hard with the masher while staying patient at the stove, since the bhaji needs to reduce to a coarse, spreadable thickness and not remain a chunky stew.
What separates a Mumbai stall from an ordinary home curry is mostly handling. At the stall the vegetables are crushed hot on the same broad flat tava where the masala was fried, butter is added in portions and not in a single block, and a final splash of butter and masala is worked through shortly before serving, which gives the top layer a sharper, richer taste than the rest of the pan.
Where It Comes From
Pav bhaji has an unusually well-supported background among Indian street foods. Historians of Indian food, K.T. Achaya among them, link it to the mill districts of Mumbai around the middle of the 19th century, when street sellers offered workers a quick lunch of mashed vegetable curry with bread, since the workers could rarely spare the time for a full sit-down meal. The pav, a soft and faintly sweet yeasted roll, reflects the city's Portuguese past: the word derives from pão, and leavened rolls reached western Indian kitchens by way of Goa and the Portuguese settlements along the Konkan coast long before they were usual elsewhere in the country. The commercially sold spice blend named pav bhaji masala is a 20th-century development, yet the method itself, which is to boil, crush, cook down with tomato and butter and serve with toasted bread, was already established on Mumbai's streets when packaged masalas did not exist. Pav bhaji has since moved around India and overseas, but it is still most strongly identified with Mumbai, where dedicated stalls still make each plate to order on big flat griddles.
How to Make It
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Prep
Grind the pav bhaji masala
Dry-roast the coriander, cumin and fennel seeds together with the dried red chillies, cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon and black cardamom over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until the aroma is strong and the colour a little deeper. Cool them entirely, then grind to a fine powder along with the amchur and chilli powder. This yields more than one pot needs, so store the rest in a sealed jar for up to two months; it will taste livelier than an old packet from a shop.
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Prep
Cook the vegetables until very soft
Pressure-cook the potatoes, cauliflower, carrot and peas for 3 to 4 whistles in a cup of water seasoned with a pinch of salt. They should end up softer than for any other dish, as they must crush into a smooth mass. Pour off any extra water but keep it, because you will want it later to loosen the bhaji, and mash the vegetables roughly while still warm.
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Cook
Soften the onions as a base
Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a wide pan and cook the onions on medium heat for about 5 minutes, until they are soft and pale gold. Stir in the ginger-garlic paste and chillies for a minute, until it no longer smells raw, then add the capsicum and cook it for 2 more minutes.
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Cook
Reduce the tomatoes completely
Add the tomatoes along with turmeric, chilli powder and 2 tablespoons of pav bhaji masala. Hold the heat at medium and press the tomatoes down with a spoon as they collapse, until the mixture is thick and deep red and oil appears at its edges. Expect 8 to 10 minutes; home cooks cut this stage short more than any other. Tomato that is still underdone is the principal reason a homemade bhaji comes out thin and raw-tasting.
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Cook
Stir in the mash and let it simmer
Add the mashed vegetables with enough of the water you saved, or fresh water, to reach a thick but scoopable texture, looser than mashed potato and nearer to a loose curry, since it thickens as it cooks. Add salt and let it simmer gently for 12 to 15 minutes, pressing with the masher in the pan every so often to keep the texture coarse and not pureed.
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Cook
Add more masala and butter at the end
Stir through the remaining masala and 2 tablespoons of butter and simmer for another 3 to 4 minutes. Check the salt, chilli and masala; the bhaji should taste boldly spiced, slightly sharp from the tomato and rich, not watery. Remove the pan from the heat and add the lemon juice.
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Cook
Crisp the pav on the griddle
Cut each roll across the middle but leave one edge joined. Heat a griddle or wide pan, add a knob of butter and a pinch of the pav bhaji masala, and lay the rolls cut side down until golden and slightly crisp at the edges, pressing lightly with a spatula. Work a few rolls at a time so the pan remains hot and the butter does not burn.
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Serve
Serve at once
Spoon the bhaji into a bowl with a cube of butter melting on top, sprinkle on raw chopped onion and coriander, and bring it out plus lemon wedges and a stack of hot buttered pav. Eat immediately, tearing off pieces of pav to scoop up the bhaji; once on the plate the dish loses heat and texture fast.
Swaps That Work
Apart from the standard potato, cauliflower, peas and carrot, nearly any firm vegetable can go into the pot. Cabbage, French beans and beetroot (the last for colour) show up as regional additions, more often in home cooking than at street stalls. A decent packaged pav bhaji masala is acceptable if you would rather not grind your own, although expect a flatter, less fresh taste. If you cannot find pav, use any soft, mildly sweet dinner roll toasted in butter, whereas a crusty loaf gives the wrong texture.
Turning the Heat Up or Down
Heat comes from three places, fresh green chillies, chilli powder, and the dried red chillies that go into the masala, so you can adjust it in three ways. To make a milder bhaji, reduce or omit the green chillies and swap part of the chilli powder for mild paprika. To make it hotter, chop a green chilli and add it with the last butter and not earlier, because chilli added raw at the end keeps a sharper, fresher heat than chilli cooked from the start.
Where Cooks Go Wrong
Taking the tomatoes off the heat too soon is the typical error, leaving the bhaji sour and thin when it should be round and rich, so wait until the tomato mixture has darkened and oil is visibly separating before the vegetables go in. Boiling the vegetables in very little water is another, because it leaves nothing to thin the bhaji later, and for that reason the cooking liquid should be saved. Third is scrimping on butter: pav bhaji is meant to be rich, and cutting it down a lot changes both the texture and the balance of flavours that the dish is built on.
Keeping and Warming Up Leftovers
To keep: Refrigerated in a sealed container, the bhaji keeps for up to 3 days, and it often tastes slightly better the next morning as the spices settle. It can also be frozen for as long as a month in a closed container, then thawed in the refrigerator before reheating. Toasted pav is best made on the spot and does not keep once buttered and griddled; unbuttered rolls stay fine on the counter for a day or two, as any soft bread does.
To warm up: Reheat the bhaji in a pan over gentle heat, adding a splash of water to loosen it, stirring regularly until it is hot all through, and finish by stirring in a small knob of butter to restore some of the richness lost in storage. If using a microwave, heat in short bursts and stir between them, as long runs can scorch the edges of a shallow dish. Toast fresh pav for serving rather than warming rolls already toasted once, which turn tough.
Safe Handling
The bhaji is fully cooked and is handled like any cooked vegetable curry: get it cooled within roughly two hours, and put it in a shallow, covered container so it chills quickly and evenly. Since potatoes make up a large part of it, avoid letting the finished dish stand at room temperature for long, especially in hot weather, and heat it until steaming throughout before it is served, not just warm. Dairy butter used for toasting the pav should not stay out of the refrigerator for long periods, unlike a shelf-stable spread.
Where to Read More
- K.T. Achaya, "Indian Food: A Historical Companion" (Oxford University Press) — on the mid-19th century origins of pav bhaji among Mumbai's mill workers.
- Lizzie Collingham, "Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors" (Oxford University Press) — on the Portuguese-Goan origins of pav bread in western India.