Misal Pav is most famous Maharashtrian dish - a street food. 'Misal' means mixture in Marathi and pav is the bun / bread roll which is served along with the mixture. Misal is a spicy curry which is generally prepared using sprouts and served with Farsan (a snack made from besan) / sev topping along with finely chopped onion, coriander and a lemon slice. Misal Pav is usually served as a breakfast dish but is all-time available in most of the Maharashtrian hotels and can be served as lunch time menu, evening snack. There are various kinds of Misal pav available which are usually named based on the locality they are served (for ex: Nashik Misal, Kolhapuri Misal, Puneri Misal etc..) and the taste slightly varies based on the spices used in the particular region. You can say 'Kolhapuri Misal' to be one of the spiciest.
In Bangalore it's very difficult to find the Farsan that we usually get in Maharashtra, so I usually get the Farsan from my native and sometimes my dad sends it via parcel. Just today morning I got a parcel of Farsan mixture, bun pav, sev and he had reminded me yesterday to soak the Matki which I could use it for preparing Misal today ; That's so kind of him. I am really blessed to have such caring parents!
I prepare this recipe in very simple way. It's easy and quick. Let's go through the procedure.
Sprouts:
Matki - Moth bean - 1 cup
Dried Green peas - 2 tbsp
Water - 1 1/2 cup
Ingredients:
Oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tspCumin seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 2 spring around 15
Onion - 1 big finely chopped
Tomato - 1 big finely chopped
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Salt - as needed
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Green chili - 1 roughly chopped
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
Red chili powder - 2 tsp
Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp
Peanut - 1 tbsp
Potato - 1 big
Water - 1/2 cup
To Serve / Garnish:
Bread / Bun - 2
Butter - for Toasting bread
Lemon - 1 sliced
Sev - 1 tbsp
Farsan - 1 tbsp
Corainder - finely chopped 1/2 tbsp
Onion - 1 small very finely chopped
Procedure:
1. Soak Matki and dried green peas in enough water for a day. Drain all the water from the matki and place it in in a clean cloth, tighten the cloth and keep it in a dry place overnight. You can see the sprouts formed. Based on the temperature if it is too hot the process will be faster or else it might take 1 - 2 days for the sprouts to appear on the beans. If you do not have enough time to soak the beans you can go for store brought sprouts.
2. In a pressure cooker cook sprouts, 1 potato together upto 3 whistles. When done drain excess water, chop the potato and keep it aside.
3. In a heavy bottomed pan heat oil on medium flame add peanuts, mustard & cumin seeds wait until it splutters.
4. Add curry leaves, ginger garlic paste, green chili saute for few seconds.
5.Add chopped onion and fry until onion becomes translucent.
6. Add finely chopped tomato mix well and saute for few minutes until tomato gets dissolved.
7. Add salt, Red chili powder, Coriander powder, Garam masala powder. Mix well and allow this to get cooked until you can see oil getting separated from the spices.
8. Add boiled sprouts and mix well. Add the chopped boiled potato. Add water and allow it to get cooked for 4-5 mins. You can see the oil layer getting formed in the curry. This is called 'kat' in marathi.
9. Toast the bread applying butter on both sides on heated frying pan. Or you can use the bread as it is .
10. In a serving plate add the mataki sambar, spread farsan & sev over it. Garnish this with finely chopped onion & coriander with a lemon slice.
