Pav bhaaji

I'm starting to enjoy writing about food. I am posting for two days in a row for the first time perhaps and loving it.
So to make sure that everyone at home felt like a real sunday
should, I worked up a Indian dish called pav bhaaji. It's basically bread served with a masala curry with lots if veggies and salad to go along. You need more than just a few ingredients and some time in hand.
For Bhaaji
2 onions chopped
2 tsp. Ginger-garlic paste
3 green chillies
Cooking oil
3 tomatoes finely chopped
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp red chilly powder
Salt to taste
4 potatoes- boiled and mashed
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped pumpkin
1/2 cup chopped beans
1/2 cup chopped capsicum
1/2 cup peas
And of course Pavs

For salad
Fresh coriander
Carrots
Tomatoes
Cabbage
Spring onions
Mint leaves
Lemon
Black pepper

Bhaaji
Firstly parboil the veggies- carrots, capsicum, peas, beans and pumpkin for about 5 mins.
Now in a deep pan, heat oil and put onions. When they turn pink add the ginger garlic paste. Stir for 2 mins. Add cumin, coriander powder, turmeric powder, red chilly powder, garam masala and salt. Cook the mix for another few mins. on low flame. Now add tomatoes and green chilies and continue cooking on low flame for another 5-6 mins. While constantly stirring. Then add the boiled potatoes and parboiled veggies. Add about half cup water and while keeping flame low, start mashing the veggies using a potato masher or the bottom of a micro-safe tumbler. Continue adding water and mashing the veggies for 7 mins. Top it up with a lot of butter/ ghee.

Salad
Just toss all the vegetables in a bug bowl and serve with a dash of lemon and ground black pepper.

Pavs
Slit the pavs into halves horizontally. In a pan, melt some butter and put the pavs, continue till they are a little light brown. The pavs need to be flattened with the help of a flat cooking spoon.

Serve the bhaaji, pavs and cabbage salad with extra butter(can be passed if health a concern).

Pancakes- Aata used

So in the Saturday Special time kill, today I tried pancakes. To be completely honest I have tried making pancakes before but everytime it ends in a sloppy uncooked disaster but today was different. With the most minimal ingredients available in every single Indian household, this recipe is a sure winner.
2 Eggs
1 cup Flour(aata)
1/2 cup sugar(powdered)
1/2 cup full cream milk
2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon butter/ghee
Few drops of Vanilla essence
Cooking oil
Maple syrup
So you beat up 2 eggs in a glass bowl, add the flour, butter and the powdered sugar; constantly stirring and whisking so that no lumps are formed. Now add milk, baking powder and continue whisking, you may want to use those electric ones or you can mix it in the blender for about 2 mins. The resultant mixture should be a viscous paste if you are looking at thick American pancakes, the thinner the paste the more you tend towards crepes. So choose your pick.
Now in a pan, heat about 2 teaspoons of oil/butter. Keep the flame on LOW(in the picture the one in the front was made on low flame and the other one on medium, so the difference is evident) and make the pancakes. You just need to put the dough in the center and not spread it; if the right viscosity it'll spread beautifully on its own. And you've used butter on the pan. it'll be a perfect circle. Flip it! Since aata takes more time to bake ensure that you are cooking well, you can try covering the pan with a plate just make sure the surface doesn't blacken.
Serve hot with butter and maple syrup(I bought at Spar hyper-mart). And love, of course.