Vada Pav with garlic and peanut chutney powder, mint and raw mango chutney, and stuffed green chillies

This is something I have grown up eating and loving. Having a whole bunch of cousins in Pune, I couldn't help myself from getting addicted to this wholesome street food winner. And yet, what I make at home seems like such a gourmet version of what you might find on the streets for only rupees 10. It is as close to the original as possible, as this recipe is a family pass on. So I can vouch for its authenticity.

When you are obliged to live in a city up north (like me), far far away from the vada pavs, bhel puris, and kacchi dabelis of Mumbai and Pune; this is the closest you can feel to your palate roots. Being from North Karnataka; having a host of family in Pune; and my obvious love for baking and continental food; render my cuisine at home so varied that you might find it odd that on the one hand I post recipes of cheesecakes and tarts, and on the other there is the very maharashtrian vada pav or the very 'namma bengaluru' kesari bhath. My recipes are mostly adopted from mum or grandmum, and I want to make sure that they don't get lost somewhere along the way.

I hope to post many more wonders of our simple Indian cooking in the months to follow. There's always room for suggestions and requests. If I know how to make it, I'll post it. For now, enjoy making and relishing the one and only 'vada pav'.

Prep time: 1 hour 30 min

Cooking time: 30 min

Serves: 4-5 people (10-12 pieces)

Ingredients

For the vada pav

10-12 Pav (bread), halved

50g softened butter

250ml vegetable oil for deep frying

Filling for vadas

½ kg potatoes, boiled, peeled and mashed

½ tsp turmeric powder

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt to taste

Masala mix:

6 green chillies

1 bunch fresh coriander

1 bunch Curry leaves

1½ inch piece ginger

1 whole pod of garlic (small), peeled

Batter for vadas

2 cups gram flour (besan)

1 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder

Pinch of asafoetida (hing)

½ tsp whole caraway seeds (ajwain)

½ tsp whole cumin seeds (jeera)

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Salt to taste

Water as required

 Mint and raw mango chutney

1 raw mango, peeled and flesh grated

½ bunch mint leaves

½ bunch fresh coriander

4-5 green chillies

¼ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled

2 tbsp thick yoghurt

¼ tsp sugar or some jaggery (add only if the mango is very sour)

Salt to taste

Garlic and peanut chutney powder

½ cup roasted peanuts

½ cup roasted gram lentil (roasted chana)

2 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder

1 whole pod garlic, peeled

½ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

2 inch piece of deseeded tamarind

3 tbsp desiccated coconut, grated

Salt to taste

Stuffed green chillies

4-6 green chillies, slit and deseeded

Rock salt (kala namak)

Cumin powder (jeera)

Asafoetida powder (hing)

Dry mango powder (aamchur)

Method

 Vada Pav

Grind all the ingredients of the masala coarsely.

Add oil to a large saucepan. Add the ground masala. Fry for a minute. Add turmeric powder. Add the mashed potatoes. Add salt, and stir well on a low flame. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the juice of a lime. Stir and keep aside, allowing to cool completely. Once cooled, divide the mixture into10-12 equal portions, and shape them into small patties.

For the batter, mix all the ingredients in a large bowl, adding water slowly to make a thick smooth batter without any lumps. Keep aside.

Dip the potato patties in the batter and deep fry on a medium flame until golden yellow.

Toast the pav with a generous helping of butter on a non-stick pan, till they are nice and golden brown.

Mint and raw mango chutney

Grind all the ingredients in a blender to get a smooth paste. Add water if necessary.

Garlic and peanut chutney powder

Grind all the ingredients in a blender to get a grainy and coarse powder.

Stuffed green chillies

Stuff the green chillies with all the ingredients mentioned above and deep fry in a small saucepan.

Assembling

Place a vada between the two halves of the pav, season with the two chutneys and serve with the stuffed green chilly! 

Mint and Kiwi Mousse

This recipe is an adaptation of Nigella Lawson’s ‘Grasshopper Pie’. I had to make some changes to the original recipe because I couldn’t find some of the ingredients in our Indian local markets. A Grasshopper Pie basically contains two main ingredients- crème de menthe (green peppermint liquor) and crème de cacao blanc (colourless chocolate liquor). The pie gets its flavouring and green colour because of these ingredients. But sadly, these liquors are not easily available in India (please let me know if you find them!). However, they can be easily ordered online at http://http://www.thedrinkshop.com// and http://www.drinksdirect.co.uk/index.html. The best brand to buy would be De Kuyper.

I have replaced these two ingredients with peppermint extract/essence (available in grocery stores) and pureed fresh kiwi fruit. If you want to avoid the kiwi fruit, you can use the mint extract alone. Be creative, marry flavours that go together.

I haven’t used any green food colouring in the pie, but feel free to do so if you want your pie to have better aesthetics.

It is a very indulgent pie, so make and eat at your own risk!



Serves: 8-10
Prep time: 20 min
Cooking time: 30 min
Cooking tray: 25cm tin (need not be ovenproof as this is a cold dessert)

Ingredients
Pie crust
300g bourbon biscuits (or any other with a choc cream centre)
150g dark chocolate cut into small pieces (or dark choc chips)
50g unsalted butter

Filling
125ml full cream milk
175g mini marshmallows (vanilla flavour)
375ml double cream
2 fresh kiwi fruits peeled and pureed and 1 kiwi fruit peeled and sliced for granish
½ tsp peppermint extract
2-3 drops green food colour (optional)

Method
For the pie crust, pulse the bourbon biscuits, dark chocolate and butter in a food processor until you end up with a soft rubble. Tip this mixture into the cooking tray and line the base and sides of the tray pressing with the back of a spoon or with your knuckles until you get an even top surface. Save some chocolate rubble for garnishing your final pie. Refrigerate the tray till you prepare the filling.

Whisk the double cream in a bowl until it holds soft peaks. This is important because we don’t want our final filling to be a runny liquid that will not set.

Place the milk and mini marshmallows in a non-stick saucepan and heat on a low flame, whisking gently until the marshmallows melt and the mixture comes together. Do not increase the flame, and remember to never let the mixture boil. This will split the gelatine in the marshmallows leaving you with an unusable mixture. Your end product should be a warm gooey white mixture. Allow to cool for 3-5 min, whisking gently. Now, add a few drops of green food colour if you wish to, and mix well.

Combine the whipped cream with the marshmallow mixture, folding in gently. Add the peppermint extract and kiwi puree at this point and mix well. Pull out the tray from the refrigerator and pour this entire mixture into the tray. Even out the surface with a spatula. Chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours until the gelatine sets.

Before serving, sprinkle some chocolate rubble onto the pale green surface of the pie and garnish with fresh kiwi fruit slices. Serve cold.

Bench notes
Marshmallows are used because they contain gelatine and you can avoid the mess and confusion that comes with melting actual gelatine.

Use confectionary cream if possible. This should be available at whole sale stores. It is thicker, and is naturally sweetened, which is why the recipe does not call for any added sugar.

If you plan to go with the original Grasshopper Pie recipe, eliminate the peppermint extract and the kiwi puree. Instead, add 60ml crème the menthe and 60ml crème the cacao blanc to the whipped cream and marshmallow mixture.

The final consistency of the pie should be such that you should be able to slice through it and lift it with a fork.

• It’s good to use a tin with collapsible sides, as this will help you cut and serve the pie as nice clean triangles. I have put up some pictures below to help you understand how these work.
• They generally come with corrugated sides (see picture 1)
• They have a separate central base that can be removed from the corrugated side piece (see picture 2)
• Once the pie is ready place the tin on a thin-necked bottle (see picture 3)
• Give the sides a mild twist and slowly slip it down, making sure the central base (with the pie resting on it) is resting safely on top of the bottle (see picture 4 & 5)
• Use a spatula to ease the pie off the central base and onto a serving tray.