Homely Food: misal pav

SNC---3

Hello friends! Today my turn has come and I am delighted to share this wonderful yummy dish from Maharashtra. Ahhh, but wait, let me first take you back two months and tell you all about South vs North challenge. Aren't you curious? Our friend Divya pramil, has put up interesting challenge. Based on geographical location of India, two teams were formed. One for South and one for north and every month one person from both team would challenge the other team with there area's authentic dish and all the members of the opposite team have to make it one month time. Check out the details HERE.

This is third month of challenge and this time from North team I am challenging my South team friends to try out famous street food of Mumbai which is Misal pav. In simple language Misal is mixture and its mixed in gravy and served with pav. I am sure all know the pav, am I right? Misal is made differently in whole of Maharashtra using different ingredients but here I made it very simple with easy to get ingredients. Let me show you how its made.

Ingredients:

4 onions
4 cloves garlic
1/4 inch ginger
2 green chillies
2 tomatoes
1/4 cup grated coconut or dessicated coconut

( above ingredients for the paste)

1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp dry mango powder/amchoor
Salt to taste.
3 tbsp oil
water as needed

200 gms dried white peas.
Mix farsan as needed
Pav buns as needed

coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

Wash and soak dried white peas overnight. Drain water and add new water and boil peas to 1 whistle. They should be cooked soft but not mushy. Keep them aside.

Chop onion garlic ginger and green chillies. In a pan, heat 2 tbsp oil, add half of the chopped onion and rest keep aside for later use. Saute onion for a minute or two. Add ginger, garlic and green chillies and again saute for a minute. Add chopped tomatoes and let it cook for a minute or two again. Finally reduce heat and add coconut powder or grated coconut. Mix well and remove in plate to cool. Grind this mixture to a smooth paste and keep it aside.

In same pan, heat the remaining oil and add cumin seeds. Once it splutters add the rest of masalas and saute it for half a minute. Be careful as masala would burn fast. To this, add the paste we made earlier and mix well. Add water as needed to get right consistency which is almost gravy type. Let it boil for a minute or two and add salt here. Do not forget the namak shamak. Finally add the boiled peas which we kept aside earlier. Mix and let it boil for few minutes till the dish looks like peas gravy type. Your usal is done here. Usal means just the gravy here which can be had as it is with pav. But we are making misal, so next part is easy now.

In a bowl, put the usal gravy, top it with mix farsan and some of the remaining chopped onions, garnish with coriander leaves. Serve it hot with pav.

How to eat:
Mix the things in the bowl and enjoy with pav. Simple enough, isn't it? So, when are you trying out?

Notes:

Misal pav is usually quite spicy in the interiors of Maharashtra and in some places instead of peas,sprouted matki or moth bean is used along with boiled potatoes. The masala also changes its way in the interiors. Misal pav is common street food in Mumbai and its full dish. Mix farsan is mostly mixture and at most places chiwda is used but be careful as chivda tends to get soggy. In the second post below I have put the pic of mixture I have used. I forgot to take pic of dry white peas so just attached another one and these peas are also used in ragda patties dish. Do try out and any doubts, Mail me or use the Contact form above in the tabs.

EDIT: As most of our friends are getting confused with what is mix farsan, here is the answer:
Mixed farsan refers to a mixture of roasted or fried ingredients like chiwda(rice flakes), papdi(salted fried gram flour cookies),cornflakes, peanuts, roasted moth beans, dried fruits,salt and spices. (courtesy: Tarla Dalal)

Here is step by step pics: