Indian Mashed Veggies & Rolls: Pav Bhaji

This dish is commonly sold by street vendors and fast food outlets in India. It seems to have originated in Mumbai on the western coast of India (it was formerly called "Bombay"). Indians use a spice blend called "pav bhaji masala" to season this dish, and this spice blend can be found at Indian and Pakistani shops, or perhaps at some spice shops, but if you keep a good variety of spices in your home, you can just add many of the individual spices to the recipe yourself, and if you're missing one or two, you shan't be banned from fixing or eating Indian food for the rest of your life, although 20 lashes with a piece of spaghetti might be in order. Below I've listed the most common spices used in the spice blend. The use of bread rolls is likely from Portuguese influence ('pav,' pronounced like 'pow,' from Portuguese 'pão;' that is, 'bread'), as the Portuguese maintained a colonial presence in India for centuries, longer than England/Britain. 

 

Fenugreek leaves are used in this dish. The seeds (often ground) and the leaves of the fenugreek plant are fairly common ingredients in certain foods of the Indian subcontinent and they would be good additions to your herbs and spices.

Ingredients:

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into about 1 1/2 inch pieces

10 to 12 ounces green peas, canned (drained), or frozen

1 cup finely chopped onion

2 fresh medium tomatoes, chopped

1/4 to 1/2 cup of the water used to boil the potatoes and carrots

spices:

-1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

- 1 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne or other)

- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

- 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed (crushed, or even better, grind it if you have a spice grinder)

(optional) 1/2 teaspoon dried mango powder (also called 'amchur')

1 or 2 tablespoons fenugreek leaves

1 heaping teaspoon salt

(optional) 2 tablespoon fresh chopped coriander (also called cilantro)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil + 1 tablespoon butter

3 or 4 tablespoons butter

dinner rolls, split and toasted in a skillet

Boil the potatoes and carrots in just enough water to cover. Cook until tender. You can microwave the peas and tomatoes, if you'd like, or heat them on the stove, then add them to the cooked potatoes and carrots, along with 1/4 cup of the water used to boil the potatoes and carrots. Mash the vegetables with a potato masher, a stick blender, a mixer or use a food processor (you can add a little more of the cooking water, if the mixture is too thick). Toast the rolls in a skillet over low heat with melted butter (you can add a little pinch of ground cumin and a tiny pinch of ground red pepper to the melted butter and then toast the rolls). Top the mashed vegetable mixture with pats of butter. Serve with some raw chopped onion on the side, a couple of lemon or lime wedges and a green chili pepper or two (jalapeños or serranos are good suggestions).

 

Pav Bhaji with a pat of butter, piece of lemon, piece of lime, browned rolls, green chili pepper and some chopped red onion

WORD HISTORY: 

Fenestra-This word is now really only in use among anatomical specialists in English, but believe it or not, forms of it have been around in English and other Germanic languages dating back many centuries. Its history is obscure, although many etymologists and linguists believe it is of Etruscan derivation,^ because its ending of "stra" being the ending of other Latin words borrowed from Etruscan. Anyway, Latin had "fenestra," presumably from Etruscan, and meaning, "an opening in a wall or a roof to let in light;" thus also, "a window, a hatch." It was borrowed into some of the Germanic languages, "apparently" individually, rather than borrowed by the parent Germanic language, Old Germanic; and for instance, long ago the German spoken in what became Switzerland had "feister" for "window" from dialectal Latin "festra." Old English had "fenester," Old High German had "fenstar," with isolated cases of "finestra," all meaning "window." Low German and Dutch (both had "venster," both perhaps from German "fenstar?"). English kept its form as a synonym of "window" clear into the 1500s, when the word was totally superseded by "window" and "fenester" (also spelled "fenestre") became archaic. The 1800s saw the medicinal and anatomical use of the Latin form "fenestra" for "openings" in body parts, mainly in bones, especially in the second half of the 1800s regarding part of the middle and inner ear. German still has a form of the word as its word for "window," that being "Fenster."    

^ Etruscan is a mystery language, but it was "possibly" related to some languages of the Aegean Sea area, including "Minoan." In ancient times, Etruscan was spoken in a fairly large part of what is now Italy, but it eventually died out when Latin came to the area, although some of its words were borrowed into Latin.