Mumbai Masala Toast

 

 

Mumbai street food has wide range of varieties like vada pav, dosa, pani puri, and the list goes on just like that.. One among them is Masala Toast sandwich.
Myself and my hubby used to have this from the street shops, which are freshly prepared in front of our eyes. I captured the method in my mind and since we moved out of India, I used to prepare all by myself. 
My hubby and myself are very fond of these street foods, so they are prepared very often at our home.

This sandwich is not only very tasty, but it is very simple to prepare. The combination of coriander mint chutney, potato masala and all crunchy thinly sliced veggies make an excellent combination. 

As I do not have a griller or a sandwich maker at home, I just toasted my bread in tawa. Even then, there was never a compromise in taste. If you have a griller or sandwich maker, then go ahead and use it.

Try and let me know how it came out for you.



Servings - 3

Ingredients

For Potato Masala

• Potato - 2, boiled, peeled and mashed
• Oil - 2 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
• Onions - 1, chopped very finely
• Green chilles - 2 or 3(or according to spice level) finely chopped
• Ginger paste - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder - a pinch
• Coriander powder - 1 tsp
• Garam masala powder / Pav bhaji masala/ Sandwich masala - 1 tsp
• Coriander leaves - 1 tblspn, finely chopped

Vegetables

• Onion - 1, thinly sliced rounds
• Capsicum - Thinly sliced
• Tomato - 1, thinly sliced rounds

Other Ingredients

• Bread Slices - 6 (Sandwich bread preferred, wheat or white bread)
• Butter - for spreading and toasting
• Cream cheese- for spreading (Optional)
• Coriander mint chutney - for spreading
• Salt to taste
• Pav bhaji masala
• Chaat Masala
• Sev 1 cup
• Coriander leaves to garnish

Method

For Potato Masala

• Heat oil in a pan and crackle mustard and cumin seeds. 
• Add green chillies and ginger paste and saute for few seconds. Now add the finely chopped onions.
• Cook until the onions are translucent. Add salt to speed up the process.
• Add coriander powder, garam masala/pav bhaji masala/sandwich masala. Sprinkle some water to avoid the masalas from getting burnt and to get a semi soft consistency to the masala.
• Add the boiled and mashed potatoes. Mix well until everything is combined. Sprinkle coriiander leaves.
• Turn off the heat and allow it to cool down completely.

How to proceed?

• Take a bread slice and apply butter and cream cheese. Spread both evenly on the bread. You can either use cream cheese or butter. I used the combination of both.

• Now spread a teaspoon of coriander mint chutney all over the bread.

• Apply a thick layer of potato masala evenly using butter knife.

 

• Place the thinly sliced veggies over the masala

• Sprinkle some chaat masala, salt and pav bhaji masala

• Take another slice of bread and spread cream cheese and butter (or either of these), facing downwards to cover the other bread.

 
 

• Apply butter on both the sides of the bread and grill or toast it. If you are toasting it, make sure to keep the heat in medium to low, inorder to get a nice color and crispiness. Make sure not to burn them.
• Once done, take out of the pan. Apply some coriander mint chutney over the sandwich and sprinkle a generous amount of sev and little chaat masala. Garnish the entire plate with coriander leaves and serve immediately with tomato sauce and coriander mint chutney

 
Notes

You can add boiled/frozen green peas to the masala if you wish to. Add after sauteing the onions

Pav bhaji (Whole wheat pav)

Pav Bhaji!! A lip smacking street food of Mumbai, has become very famous all over India. Myself and my hubby are the biggest fan of street foods. But the place where we are staying right now is not very famous for this and we hardly find any street food vendors. Or I can say we do not get any of such foods here.
I am totally in love with this dish, since the time I had it for the first time. It is more than a snack and of course increases your hunger as you eat it more and more. Ya!! Its like that for me. When I have something very delicious, my hunger keeps increasing!! 
Pav / Buns for this dish can be brought from store or you can easily prepare this at home. I usually make this using maida/ all purpose flour. But this time, for a healthier option, I used whole wheat flour to prepare this. I can say, they came out super soft, just as soft as you prepare them using maida
Bhaji is traditionally prepared using boiled and mashed potatoes and tomatoes, but today varieties of vegetables are added for this preparation. I use almost all vegetables like carrot, potato, beans, peas, cabbage, cauliflower, turnip, eggplants, etc in this. Then, these are served piping hot garnished with raw onions, coriander leaves, along with pav / bread toasted in butter.
Do try this recipe. I am sure, if there are any street food lovers like me and my hubby, you are definitely going to love this.

Ingredients

For the pav buns

• Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
• Active dry yeast - 1 tsp
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Sugar - 1 tblspn
• Warm water - to knead the dough, approx 1/2 cup
• Butter -1/2 cup

For Bhaji

• Butter - 1 tblspn
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• ginger-garlic paste - 1 tblspn
• Green chillies - 3, finely chopped
• Onion - 1, finely chopped
• Tomato - 2 cups, finely chopped
• All vegetables - Carrot, beans, potato(must), brinjal, peas, beans, cabbage, etc
• pav bhaji masala - 1 tblspn
  Fennel powder - 2 tsp
• Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Sugar - 1 tsp
• Coriander leaves - 1 tblspn, finely chopped
• Lemon juice - 1 tblspn

Other Ingredients

• Onions- 1 cup, finely chopped
• Lemon wedges - 2 nos
• Coriander leaves - 1 tblspn, finely chopped

Method

For the pav

• In a bowl, combine wheat flour, salt, active dry yeast and sugar. Give it a good mix until everything is combined.
• Add warm water, slowly, and knead it i to a smooth dough. Make sure your water is warm and not hot. Around 70 deg is sufficient for this preparation.
• Pour 1 tsp of melted butter to it and knead again.
• Cover it with a damp cloth, inorder to avoid forming a layer on the dough. Let it rest in a warm place for about 1 hour.
• After 1 hour, the dough should have doubled in size, because of the yeast present i it. If it doesn't rise in its volume, it means either the temperature is too low or yeast was not active. You have to start the entire process again.
• Punch out the air pockets from the dough and knead it once again.
• divide the dough in to a big lemon sized balls. Make a perfect round balls and arrange everything on a baking tray.
• Cover again with the damp cloth and let it rest for another 1/2 hour to 1 hour.
• Preheat your oven @190 deg C before 10 minutes of baking
• brush some melted butter or milk on top of the buns and bake it for 30 - 35 minutes or until you see a golden brown crust on the top of the buns.
• Take your wheat buns out of the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes
• Brush some melted butter on top of your buns. 
• Your pav is now ready

For Bhaji

• Pressure cook all the vegetables for 6 or 7 whistles, or until it is mushy. Let the pressure release out completely. Open the cooker and mash the boiled veggies with a potato masher or back of a spatula.
• Heat butter in a pan and crackle cumin seeds. Add onion, ginger garlic paste, salt and sugar. Let it cook until onion becomes transparent and raw smell of the ginger and garlic vanishes away.
• Add the green chillies and tomatoes. Cook till tomatoes are mushy.
• Now add the boiled and mashed veggies. Mix well and mash it again.
• Check for salt and add accordingly.
• Add pav bhaji masala, fennel powder and garam masala. Cover the lid and let it cook on a slow flame for 5 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and  squeeze some lime juice.
• Sprinkle coriander leaves. Cover the lid again and keep for 10 minutes before serving

How to proceed

• Slit open your pav buns.
• Heat some butter in a tawa and toast the pav buns on both the sides. Transfer to a plate.
• in the same pan, heat 1 tsp butter and place 2 ladle full of bhaji. Let it cook for a minute. sprinkle some finely chopped onions and coriander leaves.Transfer it to the plate where you have your pav.
• Place few onion rings and onion rings on the plate and serve hot.

Potato basket chaat

These are baskets which are made of grated starch free potatoes and are filled with tawa fried chick peas, onion, tomato, chutneys and well beaten yoghurt. If you are looking for a chaat item for a party, this is one good option. 

Making filling for these baskets are all your choice. You can add paneer / Sprouts / cheese etc, according to your taste. I have seasoned the potatoes with pepper, tandoori masala and cumin powder. But the choice is again up to you. You can season them or just keep it plain.

Always try to use starch free potatoes / old potatoes in order to make it crispy.

You can store this in room temperature for about 1 or 2 days prior or you can store it in an air tight container and freeze it for about a week. 

I will show you the baked version of potato baskets. There is another option also to make these baskets by frying them

Ingredients

For tawa channa

• Channa / Garbanzo beans - 1/2 cup
• Oil- 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Onion - 1/2 no, finely chopped
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Tomato / Tomato puree - 1/4 no / 3 tsp
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander leaves - to garnish
• Salt - to taste

For Potato Basket

• Potato - 2 cups , Grated
• Salt - 2 tsp
• Water - 2 cups
• Corn flour / All purpose flour - 1 tblspn
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Pepper powder - 1 tsp
• Tandoori masala powder - 1 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
• Oil - to sprat on muffin trays

Other Ingredients

• Onions - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
• Tomatoes - 1/4 cup , finely chopped
• Chaat masala powder - 2 tsp
• Dry mango powder - 1 tsp
• Cumin powder - 2 tsp
• Yoghurt - 1/2 cup, well beaten
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Sugar - 1 tsp
• Sweet chutney - 1 tblspn
• Chaat green chutney - 1 tblspn
• Coriander leaves - few, finely chopped
• Lemon juice - 1 tblspn

Method

For Tawa Channa

• Soak chick peas over night or for about 6 hours minimum. Pressure cook until soft.
• In a tawa, heat oil and crackle the cumin seeds. Add ginger garlic paste and chopped onions and salt. Fry till onions become transparent and raw smell of ginger and garlic is gone completely.

• Sprinkle some chilli powder , garam masala powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder

• Add tomatoes and cook till mushy.

• Now add the garbanzo beans and cook for a minute. Mix everything well and turn off the heat.

• Garnish with coriander leaves and keep aside.

For Potato Baskets

• Preheat the oven @ 200 deg
• Grate the potatoes and soak them in warm water for about half an hour. Squeeze out the water completely from them. You can use either the fine grater or medium ones. But make sure to squeeze out as much water as possible to get crispy potato cups

 

• Add cornflour, pepper powder, chilli powder, cumin powder and tandoori masala powder. Mix everything really well

 

• Grease your muffin tray with some oil

 

• Place the potato filling in each muffin mold. With the help of your fingers, move them to sides and make the shape of a basket. Spread hem as evenly as possible.

 

• Bake them in the preheated ovenfor about 25 to 30 minutes or until it becomes crispy.
• Remove from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes.
• With the help of the fork, carefully take out the potato baskets from each muffin molds.

• Let it cool completely before you tranfer them to air tight containers.
• You can freeze it up to a week. When you are ready to make the chaat, preheat your oven @ 200 deg, and bake for about 10 minutes or until it is crispy again.

 How to Proceed?

• In a bowl, whisk the curds well. Add salt, sugar, cumin powder, chat masala powder and dry mango powder. Mix well.
• Take 1 potato basket. Start by filling the tawa fried garbanzo beans. Place 2 or 3 garbazo beans. Then add chopped onions and tomatoes
• Top them with chaat green chutney, sweet chutney, coriander leaves, yoghurt and sev. 
• Finally sprinkle some chaat masala, salt, dry mango powder, cumin powder and chilli powder. Squeeze some fresh lime juice on top

• Repeat the same for all and serve