Mumbai Special

These are every Mumbaities favourite dishes. If you wish to eat the 'Vada Paav' all you need do is step outside the railway station and find a “gaadi” selling it. Of course every area has “the one place which serves the best” such as the one in Worli near the petrol pump bang opposite my house, Krishna vada paav near Dadar Station and Mangesh vada paav in Borivali. There is one in Dubai too now – Urban Tadka in Karama.

To have the best misal in Mumbai you must visit Aaswad or Prakash in Shivaji Park or Adarsh near Dadar station (There is no place in Dubai that serves misal anyway close to the one we get in Mumbai)

I am just plain lucky that my granny and mom make them the exact same way or probably better than the ones you would eat in any of the places mentioned above. Since I’m putting this up on my blog it makes you lucky too, to be able have it at your own home, wherever you are – USA, UK, Europe, Australia, Dubai, or South America:-)

So enjoy these weekend snacks and in terms of copyright all you need to do is send me a portion for taste:-)

1) Vada Paav – (Potato Vada and Bread)


The following quantity will suffice for 15 vadas

Ingredients:
Medium sized potatoes - 5-6 nos.
Mustard seeds (rai) – 1 ½ tea sp
Curry leaves (kadipatta) – 7-8
Green Chillies – 7-8 ( you can take more depending how spicy you need)
Ginger Garlic Paste (aale lasoon)– 2 tea sp
Coriander seeds (dhane)– 1 tb sp ( ground thick)
Turmeric powder (haldi)– 1 tea sp
Asafoetida(hing) - ½ tea sp
Jaggery (gud)– 1 tea sp ( crushed fine)
Tamarind (chincha)– 1 tea sp
Salt, sugar to taste
Lemon juice – to taste
Gram flour (besan) – 1 cup
Soda-bi-carbonate powder – 1 tea sp
Oil
Coriander leaves (kothimbir) – 10-12 stalks

Method
Boil the potatoes.
In the seasoning pan – add oil - 1 tb sp, let it heat then add mustard seeds, asafoetida, green chillies (finely chopped), curry leaves, ginger-garlic paste, turmeric powder, coriander seeds. Stir for 2-3 minutes.
Mix the jaggery and tamarind in water and keep for 5-10 mins.
Mash the potatoes, add the above seasoning, and mix well. Add the jaggery-tamarind water, finely chopped coriander leaves, salt, sugar, lemon juice, coriander leaves chopped. Mix well and make round balls of the mixture.

Coating:
In a vessel, take gram flour; add little salt, soda-bi-carb and water till you get a thick paste. Stir continuously so as not to form any thick solid. Don’t make the paste too watery or too thick, keep it such that it will coat the potato balls well.
Coat the potato balls with this paste, in case you don’t want to dirty your hands, take a large spoon and take the coated potato balls out from the vessel.

Heat oil (enough to deep fry) in a big kadhai and pour the coated potato balls in the kadhai and deep fry. Remove when the coating turns slightly light brown

Chutneys
1. Green mint chutney( grind green chillies, mint leaves and coriander leaves, salt, lemon juice, water in mixer to form a thick paste)
2. Lahsoon chutney (I get this readymade from my aunt and mom-in-law, recipe later!)

Serve
Bread – Get the bread used for paav bhaji which is like a bun.
To one side add the above chutneys, place the vada in the bread and serve hot!

2) Misal Paav
Following combination serves 4 plates (I cannot say 4 people because it depends on how many plates one can have:-))


Ingredients:
Matki Usal
Potato Vegetable
Farsan
Coriander Leaves – Finely Chopped
Onion – Finely Chopped
Wet coconut – Grated
Lemon

Matki Usal



Soak one cup matki pulse to sprout. Matki takes atleast 2 days to sprout well. Soak overnight in water. Then remove all the water, wrap it in a cloth and leave it in refrigerator for one more day, even if you leave it in a vessel it will sprout.

Heat oil - 2 tb sp in a pressure pan. Add 1 tea spoon each mustard seeds and cumin seeds to it. Add 3-4 finely chopped green chillies. Stir for 1-2 minutes. Grate 2 onions and add them. Once they turn light brown add turmeric powder (1 tea sp.), ginger-garlic paste (1 tea sp). Stir well for 2-3 minutes. Add 2 tb sp red chilly powder. Add salt to taste. Boil the mixture until 1 whistle of the pressure pan. Let it cool then add 1 tb sp ‘goda masala’. (This is readily available in all shops in mumbai, if not search for “misal masala” in any Indian store and that will do to)
Boil the mixture and add 2 tb sp tamarind-jaggery water (method described in vada paav recipe above for making this water)
Matki usal is ready

Potato Vegetable
Boil 3 medium sized potatoes. Heat oil in kadhai/vessel. Add 1 tea sp mustard seeds, ½ tea sp. Asafetida, 5-6 curry leaves, 2-3 finely chopped green chillies and 1 tea sp turmeric powder. Cut the boiled potatoes in small pieces and add to the above seasoning in the kadhai. Add salt to taste, sugar and lemon juice. Stir well till it cooks.

Farsan
That is how it looks and is readily available in all stores.

Misal
Take a plate, first place the potato vegetable , then add the matki usal to it, then add the farsan (as much as you like), add chopped onions, chopped coriander leaves, wet grated coconut and add little lemon. Serve hot. You may also eat this along with same bun bread as the one used for vada paav or have it plain. You can also have it with curd and then it is known as “Dahi Misal”

Enjoy and do let me know how they turned out!


P.S: The pics are from google.com. Next time I'll remember to click snaps and put them up!