Homemade Ladi (Mumbai) Pav/ Dinner roll

Ingredients:

1. Maida (All purpose flour): 3 cups + approximately ½ cup while kneading the dough later
2. Wheat gluten: 2 Tbsp (Picture and description is at the end of the recipe)
3. Melted butter: 3 Tbsp
4. Sugar: 1 Tbsp
5. Milk: 1 cup
6. Water: ¼ cup
7. Rapid dry yeast: 2 ¼ Tsp (Picture is at the end of the recipe)
8. Baking powder: 1 Tsp
9. Salt: 1 Tsp

Procedure:

Take a microwave safe bowl, mix milk and water in it. Put it in microwave for about 20 to 30 sec on medium high. The mixture should not be boiling hot but just luke warm. Add sugar to the milk, stir well and now add rapid dry yeast to this mixture and put it aside for getting it activated. If the milk-water mixture is boiling hot then it will kill the yeast and the pav will not rise at all.

You will need a large bowl for kneading the dough because you will be keeping this dough in the same bowl for rising, if the bowl is small then the dough may come out and it will be a great mess. (I put 4-5Tbsp of olive oil in the bowl, coat the dough nicely in the oil and keep it for rising. This avoids the dough to dry while rising) 

Now take maida, wheat gluten, melted butter, baking powder & salt in a bowl and stir it well. If the yeast is bubbling by now and has changed its color a little, put it in dry ingredients. Stir it well with spatula. Put this mixture under a standing mixer with a dough attachment and start the mixer on low setting initially and when the flour is incorporated well increase the speed. If you do not have this kind of mixer you may knead the dough either on a large cutting/ kneading board or on a clean plain surface like platform for about 10 min till the dough is of sticky consistency. Oil the bowl properly. Put this dough in the oiled bowl and cover it tightly with plastic or cling wrap. Keep this bowl in dry and warm place. I usually keep it in microwave or in oven (obviously on switched off mode) till this dough is double in size. This is your 1^st rise of the dough. Usually it takes about 2-3 hours (If you have more time you may keep it a little longer but not more than for 4 hours). 

Tip: If you feel the dough is not rising or you are in a hurry you may preheat the convection oven on 200 F and switch it off. Now your oven is enough warm and you can keep the dough bowl in it. However at this time do not cling wrap the bowl initially otherwise there will be moisture on the wrap from inside which will spoil the entire process. After an hour or so cling wrap the dough-bowl and let the magic happen J

Once the dough is double in size, take it out on a lightly floured board. Knead it again for about 5 min. Grease the baking tray with butter or oil. You may put an aluminum foil in this tray and then grease it. This will avoid unwanted oil stains on the baking pan for the future use. Now make 12 equal balls of the dough. Stretch each dough ball and make it like a small pillow. Arrange it on the baking pan leaving some space in between each ball. This will give enough room to the dough balls to rise. At this time you can brush either butter, milk or egg wash to the balls. This will give that perfect golden-brown color to the pav. Also your pav will not be dry when baked. I sometimes use butter flavored oil spray which is easily available in any super market. With this spray you will never go wrong on that beautiful color once these rolls are baked. Now cling wrap the pan again for our 2^nd rise. Put this tray again in the same dry and warm place to rise for about 2-3 hours more. The 2^nd rise is equally important as the 1^st rise. If you don’t allow it to rise nicely, they will be uncooked or mushy from inside once baked. You want that fluffy and beautiful dinner roll/ pav. When the pav are risen nicely usually they will come together and hug each other and that’s the indication of nicely risen pav.

Preheat the oven on 375 F. Remove the cling wrap from the pan and bake these pav for 25-30 min or till the time you may see the nice golden-brown color on the pav (each oven may take different time so please keep an eye on it from the 25^th min, you don’t want to over bake it). My pav are usually ready in about 30 min.

Wear oven mittens and take out the baking tray. The beautiful aroma of this pav will fill your kitchen. As soon as you take the pav out you may want to butter them again which will give a nice glazy look to your pav.

Serve it potato vada (vada-pav) or make pav-bhaji or dabeli or eat it just like that. Don’t forget to enjoy these delicious pav….Happy cooking!!!!

You may find Batata/ potato Vada-pav recipe by clicking on this link.

Check the link for Dabeli by clicking here. 

One more way to arrange the pav if you have a bigger quantity

Note:

Substitute for wheat gluten is plain wheat flour. 

For 3 cups all-purpose flour add 3 to 4 tbsp of wheat flour however, if you are making a wheat bread then there is no need to add wheat gluten to the recipe. I used the exact same product shown in the link which I usually buy from Walmart and shift it to an airtight container. 

Here is the link which will show you why we use wheat gluten in any bread recipe. 

http://www.thekitchn.com/vital-wheat-gluten-what-is-it-84612

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Vada-pav/ potato pakoda/ Batate vada

Vada-pav/ potato pakoda/ Batate vada

Vada pav is a well-known delicacy in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra, India.  It is the most popular form of street food in Mumbai. For many people, including me, it brings back memories of childhood. It makes for a quick comforting snack.

Stuffing for Vada:

Potatoes: 4 medium sized

Onion (optional): 1 small size finely chopped

Jeera powder (Cumin powder): ½ tsp    

Haldi (Turmeric): 1 tbsp
Hing (Asafoetida): ½ tsp 
Ginger-garlic paste: 1 table sp

Coriander (Dhana) –cumin (Jeera) powder: 1 tsp

Salt: to taste

Green chili-coriander paste: to taste (I had put about 1½ table spoon)

Lemon juice: around 1-2 table spoon (according to sourness of the lemon)

Oil: 2-3 table spoon (for tempering)

Mustard seeds (Mohari): 1 tsp

Kadi-patta (Curry leaves): 4-5 cut coarsely. Do not use curry powder as a substitute. It does not do the job.

Oil: For deep frying the vadas. Preferably use vegetable oil, although Canola or Corn Oil can be good substitutes.

Kitchen paper towels for draining the oil post frying the vadas.

Whole green chilies: As a side (Completely optional)

Binding / Cover:

Besan (chick pea flour): 2 medium size cups

Red chili powder: 1 ½ tsp

Haldi (Turmeric): 1 ½ tsp

Jeera (Cumin): 1 ½ tsp

Ajwain (Ova): 1 tsp (optional)

Baking soda: 2 pinches

Lemon juice: 2 tsp

Water: as required to make a semi thick batter

Salt: to taste

Cooked Toor dal: ½ cup (optional)

Procedure: 

Boil all the potatoes in pressure cooker up to 4-5 whistles. Alternatively potatoes can be boiled in the microwave oven. Alternatively they can be boiled on the stove-top.

Take a large bowl, peel and mash them as you would mash it for mashed potatoes. Add onion, cumin powder, haldi, hing, ginger-garlic-green chili-coriander paste, coriander-cumin powder, lemon juice and salt to taste to the mashed potatoes. Mix everything together nicely. I have often found that mixing with the hands is the easiest way of doing this. Check the taste and adjust salt or spice according to your taste. Put a wok or kadhai on the stove top for tempering (tadka). Add Mustard seeds to the hot oil, let it splutter nicely. Add curry leaves and the entire mashed potato mixture. Cook for 5 – 6 minutes in a covered vessel.

Take it off the stove top and spread it on a plate. Allow it to cool down. This is the mixture that forms the filling for the vada.

Potato sabji or bhaji for filling

The next step is to prepare the binding or cover for this mixture. The binding forms a thin layer that holds the mixture in place.

Take besan, red chili powder, haldi, jeera, ajwain, baking soda, salt & cooked toor dal, add water and make a semi thick batter. At this time do not add lemon juice. This batter is going to be the binding for the Vada.

Roll small balls/ tikkis of the potato mixture and set it aside on a plate. Heat oil in a wok for deep frying the vadas. I took vegetable oil, you may take oil of your choice. Check the temperature by dropping a few drops of besan batter, if it floats immediately that means our oil is ready for frying the vadas. Now put lemon juice in the batter and stir nicely. You may see a little bubbles in the batter. This will make vadas really light and fluffy from outside. 

Dip vadas/ tikkis in the batter with the help of a table spoon and fork. Coat it nicely with besan batter and gently, carefully put 4 vadas at a time in the hot oil. Fry till nicely brown from outside. Put it on kitchen paper towel, it will drain away the excess oil from the vadas. Now put 3-4 green chilies in the hot oil and take it out immediately otherwise they may splutter and accidents can happen. Put the hot green chilies in little salt and serve it as Vada-pav's side. 

Serve hot vadas with Pav, green chili or chutney of your choice (usually it is served with dry garlic chutney). 

You may find the recipe for making yummy pav here. 

Don't forget to enjoy....Happy Cooking!!!!!