There's always that day during the monsoon season, when the rain is pelting away on the window glass, its about that time early evening on a weekend, and you suddenly have the urge and a desperate craving for the hot street food that only Bombay can deliver on... on every possible front! Back in the day, I would call my girlfriends, we'd get the car out and head towards Chowpati beach, rain notwithstanding, chatting on the drive from Bandra to Chowpati, in excited anticipation of the culinary delights offered by the street vendors waiting for our kind to show up! Since Chowpati is a few thousand miles away, we now need to make do with testing our own culinary skills, hoping that we come somewhere vaguely close to what the street vendors had on their menus.
The weekend that the craving got the better of me, I decided to treat my girls to a few of my favorites from the Mumbaiyaa street scene... so here goes!
Vada Pav
What you'll need for the Vadas:
For the potato mix for theVadas: 3 boiled potatoes (medium sized); 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped; 11/2 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp turmeric pd; 1/2 tsp red chilli pd; 1 tsp mustard seeds; 1/2 tsp cumin seeds; 1 tblsp fresh lemon juice; 1 spring curry leaves; 1 green chilli, finely chopped; 1 tsp ginger paste; 1/2 tsp asafetida pd
Part 2 of the mix for the Vadas: 1 cup gram flour; 2 tblsp rice flour (to get a crispy crust); 1/4 tsp salt; 1/4 tsp red chilli pd; 1/2 tsp turmeric pd; a pinch of baking pd; 1/2 cup water to make the batter
Oil for frying
What you'll need for the Peanut Chutney:
1/2 cup roasted peanuts, shelled and without skin
1/4 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp red chilli pd; 1 tsp dried mango pd; 1/4 tsp asafetida pd
What you'll need to put it all together:
4 Pavs (the Indian version of mini-burger buns - or any buns you could find... I actually used hot dog buns since I had some in the fridge)
Green cilantro chutney
For the garnish, you can use thinly sliced onions and lemon wedges
We can get the peanut chutney done in a jiffy. To make this chutney, roast the cumin seeds on a pan on low heat, add in the asafetida pd and then the roasted peanuts. This shouldn't take you more than a couple minutes. Drop this roasted mixture, along with the spices into a grinder, and grind until the powdered chutney is ready!
For the vadas, we'll make the batter first, so it can sit for a bit before we use it to coat the vadas before frying. To make the batter, add the water to the mix of gram flour and rice flour, and hand whisk for a couple minutes to ensure that there are no globules of flour remaining in the batter. Then add in the dry spices, and whisk for another couple minutes until the spices are nicely blended in the batter.
Next we'll get the potatoes ready. In a pan, heat 2 tblsp of oil, and once heated, add in the mustard seeds and cumin seeds until they start crackling. Add in the asafetida, green chillies and curry leaves and saute for a quick minute. Then, add in the ginger paste and saute for 3-4 minutes until the raw smell of ginger is gone. Mash the boiled potatoes and add these to the pan, while gently folding in the crackling spices on the pan into the potatoes. Add in the remaining dry spices, mix well, and take this off the heat after 4-5 minutes. Add in the chopped cilantro and lemon juice, mix well and set aside to cool.
Let's heat the oil for frying the vadas... make balls the size of golf balls with the cooled potato mix, gently dip it in the batter, and using a spoon, lift it from the batter and slowly lower it in the pan for frying on medium heat. Repeat the process until you've made the vadas from the potato mixture. Set these aside on a paper towel so any excess oil is absorbed.
Time for for the festivities!! In order to assemble the VPs (that's what we used to call them back in the day :)), slice the pavs into half, making sure you don't slice them all the way through. Line one side with the peanut chutney, and the other side with cilantro chutney (I just used store-bought chutney for this round!), and a vada in the middle. Press the bun together and slowly lift it up to take a scrumptious bite off my favorite Bombay street food!
Ragda Patties
What you'll need for the Ragda:
1 cup white pigeon peas; 2 cups water
1 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp turmeric pd
2 tblsp oil; 1 tsp mustard seeds; 1 small red onion, finely chopped
What you'll need for the Patties:
3 potatoes, boiled and grated (keep a couple slices of white bread handy, just in case the potatoes get too squishy.. you can then crumble the bread to help absorb some of the moisture, and keep the potatoes mixture firm for the patties)
1 1/2 tsp salt; 1 tsp garlic paste; 1 tsp green chilli paste
4 tblsp oil
What you'll need for the Garnish:
Green cilantro chutney; tamarind chutney; sweet and sour dates & tamarind chutney; garlic chutney; beaten yogurt (with a hint of salt and sugar) - optional
Kashmiri red chilli pd; 2 tblsp sev (fried potato vermicelli); 1/4 tsp cumin pd; 1/4 tsp chaat masala
1/4 cup red onion, chopped; 1/4 cup tomatoes, chopped; 1 green chilli, chopped; few cilantro leaves
Lets make the ragda first... super easy! Boil the pigeon peas (or better still, pressure cook with the water), along with the salt and turmeric until nice and soft. Heat a tsp of oil on a pan, and add in the mustard seeds. Once they start spluttering, add in the onions and saute until lightly browned. Add in the cooked pigeon peas, and mix in with the tempered onions. Set aside for assembly.
Next, grate the boiled potatoes and mash with your fingers... if the mix is too squishy, feel free to add in the white bread, crumbling it before adding in to the potato mash. Add in the salt, garlic and green chilli paste, and mix well together. Then you want to heat 3-4 tblsp oil in a flat pan to shallow fry the patties. Making 2" flat discs of the potato mix (about 1cm thickness), lower the discs into the pan, and shallow fry on both sides evenly, approximately fr 5-6 minutes on each side.
And now for the assembly. Create a bed with the ragda, and add on 1/4 tsp of the green and tamarind chutneys. Place a potato patty, and sprinkle some red chilli pd on the patty, and about 1/2 tsp each of the green chutney and the sweet and sour chutney; then some chopped onions and tomatoes, topping off with the sev... if you want to use the sweetened yogurt, you should add on a spoonful before the sev, with a sprinkling of the cumin pd. And finally, a few cilantro leaves and a sprinkling of chaat masala to top it off.
The Ragda Patties are ready... this one is interestingly different from how we would make the patties in the north... we would add in all the spices into the potato mix, while in Bombay, the spices are kind of kept to a minimum in the patty itself: its all in the garnish!
Keema Pav
What you'll need:
2 lbs lamb keema (minced lamb); 3 tblsp yogurt, nicely beaten
3 tblsp mustard oil; 1 tsp coriander seeds; 4 cloves; 1/2“ cinnamon stick; 2 bay leaves
1 large onion, finely chopped; 3 green chillies, finely chopped; 11/2 tblsp ginger garlic paste; 1 tomato, diced
1 tsp garam masala; 2 tsp salt; 1 tblsp coriander pd; 1 tsp turmeric pd
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Heat the mustard oil, and add in the whole dry spices… sauté these until they start crackling and get slightly browned, perhaps 3-4 minutes. Now add in the onions and sauté these until golden brown. Add in the ginger garlic paste, and once the raw smell has dissipated, add in the green chillies and tomatoes, and sauté until the tomatoes are fully disintegrated before adding in all the powdered spices and salt.
Next, add in the minced lamb and mix well with the spiced onion mixture. Cook covered on medium heat, stirring every few minutes so the spices blend well with the mince. After about 25-30 minutes, add in the beaten yogurt and mix well with your spatula. Cook for an additional 10 minutes or so, and the keema is ready to be devoured with the buttered pan-toasted pav!!
Chilli Paneer Frankie
What you'll need:
1 lb paneer, cubed; 2 green peppers, 1" pieces; 1 red onion, 1" pieces
2 tblsp cooking oil; 2 tsp salt; 1 tsp cumin pd; 1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli pd
Chat masala for drizzling on top (if you can get your hands on Frankie masala, then even better - you should be able to find it in any Indian grocery store); 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped; 1/2 lemon
Roti or paratha, to use as a base for the roll; 1 egg, lightly beaten
The process is super simple! Heat the oil in a pan, and once heated, drop in the cubes peppers and onions until they’re lightly roasted… if you have an air fryer (that I’ve been using every single chance I get!!), you could drop the cubed peppers and onions into it with just a hint of oil, perhaps even less than a tsp?, turn it on at 390F for about 20 minutes. Once roasted/air fried, add in the dry spices and then the cubed paneer. Sauté for a few minutes, gently folding the paneer in with the spiced peppers and onions.
Let’s get the roll ready! Add a tsp of oil on a flat pan, and pour in the egg mix just so it lines the pan (pour out the excess egg - you don’t want a thick egg layer on your roll! Now put the roti/paratha on the pan, and toss it over so the roti can cook on both sides.
Note: feel free to sprinkle some pepper or chat masala on the egg if you’d like, but remember that you’ve already added in the spices to the paneer mix and you don’t want the spices to get overwhelming on the flavor front.
Finally, the assembly. Roll out the roti on a sheet of parchment paper, add on a dollop of the paneer mixture, some chopped cilantro, a drizzle of fresh lemon juice, a dash of Frankie masala (or chat masala) roll it up and voila! Ze Frankie is all set to be devoured!!!
Gulab Jamuns with Rabri
What you’ll need:
1 cup instant nonfat dry milk; 1/4 cup all purpose flour; a pinch of baking soda; 3 tblsp melted ghee; 4 tblsp milk
1 cup light brown sugar; 3 cups water; 7 cardamom pods; a few saffron strands; almond slivers for garnish
Ghee (clarified butter) or oil for frying
In a large bowl, mix the milk powder, flour, baking soda, and ghee and using your hands, rub the ghee into the mixture until its blended well. Now add in the milk and knead to a smooth dough. Create small dough balls (maybe 1" diameter?) and keep aside, covered, so the dough doesn't dry up. To prepare the syrup, boil the brown sugar and 3 cups water in a pot for half an hour over low medium temperature. Towards the end, break open the cardamom pods, and add to the syrup along with the saffron strands to give it that yummy subtle flavor.
Next, add approx 2 cups of ghee to a small pot, and heat the ghee until it melts and is medium hot. add the little dough balls and fry these until these are uniformly browned. Drain the excess ghee carefully, and gently lower the jamuns into the warm syrup. Garnish with the slivered almonds, and serve the warm gulab jamuns with chilled rabri!!!
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