Misal Paav
Doesn’t the mere mention of misal pav brings water in your mouth? I simply love this Maharashtrian delicacy and this is one of the main reasons why I love Chennai-Mumbai road trips. Once you cross Belgaum and enter Kolhapur, you will get this everywhere throughout your way till Mumbai. It’s a very spicy and tangy dish with a nice bite and crunch in every mouthful. You can make sprouts using any legumes and add it. I have used matki or moth beans. You can even use a combination of 2-3 lentils. I used to make the misal masala at home, till I got this nice and aromatic ready made misal masala from Pune. I shall share how to make the masala at home from scratch in another post, maybe. For the time being, let’s use this ready made masala. You can increase or decrease the spiciness by adjusting the amount of masala used. So, what are you guys waiting for, just go ahead and make this and enjoy it on a rainy day 🙂 Get ready to devour this, but be sure to keep a handkerchief and a glass of water ready with you. This is a real fiery and spicy dish.
Ingredients:
- Paav/Normal bread as required
- Mixture as required
- Lemon wedges as required
- Sprouts 1 cup
- Salt to taste
- Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
- Onions 3
- Tomatoes 3
- Green chilies 2-3
- Jaggery 1 tbsp
- Tamarind paste 2 tbsp
- Misal masala 3-4 tbsp
- Refined oil 2-3 tbsp
- Coriander leaves as required
Method:
- Soak moth beans or matki in water for few hours and drain and cover it and keep aside for a day or overnight till it sprouts a bit.
- Cook the sprouts or steam it with some salt and turmeric powder.
- Chop an onion, a tomato and few green chilies finely.
- Heat a tablespoon of refined oil in a kadhai and add the onion and green chilies.
- Saute till it is translucent. Add finely chopped tomato and mix well.
- Now add the cooked sprouts and cook for 3-4 minutes. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves and keep it aside.
- Chop an onion and 2 tomatoes finely.
- Now heat the remaining oil and saute the onion till it’s golden in colour.
- Add the tomato pieces and cook well.
- Add the misal masala and cook till the raw smell goes off.
- Now add tamarind pulp and around a litre of water and boil well.
- Add salt to taste and some jaggery or brown sugar to balance the flavours.
- Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. This is called the “kat” or “tarri”.
- To assemble the misal paav, take a deep bowl and add the cooked sprouts to it.
- Pour a big ladle or two of the “kat” and garnish with some ready made Farsan or mixture.
- Serve this with bread slices or freshly baked pav along with finely chopped onion and lemon wedges.
Notes:
- You can also add few pieces of boiled potato to the sprouts mix.
- Incase you do not get this masala, this is how you can make it at home. I am not claiming any authenticity of the recipe, but this was how I used to make it.
- Heat a spoon of oil in a pan. Add one finely chopped onion and few garlic cloves. Fry till they are brown. Add a tablespoon of dry shredded coconut and fry. Finally add some fresh coriander leaves and fry till it’s dry. Remove from flame and keep it aside. Now dry roast 8-10 dry red chilies, a tablespoon of coriander seeds, 1 teaspoon pepper corns, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds, 1 stick cinnamon, 3-4 cloves, 1 teaspoon sesame seeds and a bay leaf till the aroma comes out. Cool it and make a coarse powder. Pack in airtight containers and it can be used for upto 3-4 weeks if stored in refrigerator.
- You can use this spice powder in making Kolhapuri style veggies and non vegetarian gravies too.
