Pao bhajee

The Bollywood crowd queue up at Mumbai’s specialist cafes and street carts for this favourite snack – a silky vegetable dip served with buttered toasted rolls. The Portuguese introduced yeast-type breads to western India in the sixteenth century. Pao refers to small loaves of bread, and bhajee is a selection of vegetables cooked on a hotplate with tomatoes and butter.

Pao bhajee. Credit: Hardie Grant Books / Jana Liebenstein

• serves

  4

• prep

  40 minutes

• cook

  25 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 150 g (5½ oz) vegan butter
• 2 tbsp ginger paste (see Note)
• 6 ripe tomatoes, diced, or 600 g (1½ x 400 g tins) tinned diced tomatoes, drained
• 2 tbsp garlic paste (see Note)
• 2 tsp chilli powder
• ½–1 tsp salt, or to taste
• Small handful coriander (cilantro) leaves, chopped, plus extra to serve
• 1 tsp garam masala (see below)
• 8 small bread rolls, sliced in half crosswise
• Lemon wedges, to serve

Garam masala

• 3 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp green cardamom pods
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 5 cm (2 in) cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp cloves

Instructions

1. To make the garam masala, heat a small frying pan over a medium heat. Add the spices and heat them gently, stirring continuously, for about 2 minutes, or until they release their aroma. Cool, then transfer to an electric grinder or use a mortar and pestle and process to a fine powder. This makes more than you need. The extra can be stored in an airtight container in the cupboard for 2 days, or in the refrigerator or freezer for a week, although it will lose some of its subtle aroma.
2. For the bhajee, heat a heavy-based frying pan or a barbecue hotplate to a medium heat. Melt 75 g (2¾ oz) of the butter, then add the ginger paste and cook, stirring, for 5–10 seconds. Stir in the tomato and garlic paste and cook for about 8–10 minutes, or until the tomato has softened. Add the potato, chilli powder and salt and cook over a medium heat, stirring continuously, for about 10 minutes. Add the coriander and finally the garam masala and stir to mix through. Transfer the bhajee to a heatproof bowl.
3. Melt the remaining butter in the pan or on the hotplate. Add the bread rolls, cut side down, and cook over a medium heat for about 4–6 minutes, or until they are brown and have soaked up the melted butter.
4. Serve the bread rolls topped with the bhajee and extra chopped coriander, plus the lemon wedges on the side. Alternatively, serve the bhajee in a bowl with the rolls on a serving platter, for scooping up the vegetable dip.

Note

• Indian dishes are never thickened with wheat flour – a real boon for those who are gluten intolerant. Instead, sauces are thickened with other ingredients, which also add flavour. One of these is ginger paste, which gives body and a different taste from that obtained with grated ginger. It is important to use the preparation method stipulated in the recipe, as different methods give different results. Also, it is always better to make your own
• paste, as store-bought pastes often contain preservatives and additives that distort the flavour. To make ginger paste, peel and chop 100 g (3½ oz) fresh ginger. Process in a food processor with 125 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) water to form a smooth paste. Makes 1 cup. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
• Garlic paste is also commonly used to thicken sauces. It results in a smoother texture and subtler flavour than chopped or crushed garlic, which gives a different, fresher taste and more coarsely textured sauce. To make garlic paste, peel and chop 100 g (3½ oz) garlic cloves. Process in a food processor with 125 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) water to form a smooth paste. Makes 1 cup. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

 

This is an edited extract from Vegan Indian Food by Ragini Day (Hardie Grant Books, RRP $45). Photography by Jana Liebenstein (recipes) and Brett Cole (India).

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.