Dabeli

Dabeli is a pune special road side dish. It can be called as wada-pav's sister :P As opposed to hot and spicy wada pav, dabeli is sweet and sour because of the tamarind and jaggery. Its a very chatpata and filling snack.

Ingredients (serves 2)
2 big or three small boiled potatoes
1 chopped onion
1 green chilly (optional)
1/2 cup salted peanuts
some oil, mustard seeds and jeera seeds
1 teaspoon jeera powder
1 teaspoon dhaniya powder
1 tablespoon dabeli masala (you cannot make dabeli without this masala)
1 spoon tamarind
1 spoon jaggery
1/2 cup pomegranate (optional)
1/2 cup thin sev
medium sized paav/bun as per required

Directions

Stuffing: Mash potatoes and keep aside. Put some oil in a pan and after it heats, put mustard seeds and jeera. After they splatter put half spoon turmeric powder. Then put chopped onions and fry them till they become transparent and reddish in color. put some chopped green chillies (optional). Now add the mashed potatoes to this and mix them well. Add dabeli masala, red chilly powder, dhaniya powder and some jeera powder. Add salt to taste. Then add some jaggery and tamarind paste to this mixture. mix everything well and let it cook well.

Dabeli: split the paav into two. Apply some tamarind chutney from inside. Put the stuffing evenly and then put some peanuts, sev, onion, coriander, pomegranate seeds on top and close it with the other side of paav. You can roast this on pan for some time with butter to make it crisp and more tasty (and if you are not very calorie conscious :))

Dabeli is ready! it should look something like the photo given below

Sweet and Sour Daal

Sweet and sour daal known as aamti in marathi (ambat in marathi means sour) is a typical maharashtrian daal having jaggery, tamarind and kaala/goda masala as the key ingredients. This daal is liked by every single person for whom I made it :). Some people cannot imagine the usual maharashtrian trend of sugar/jaggery in their everyday food. I challenge that those people will love this daal :P The kaala/goda masala mentioned here is a mom-made masala which I have not seen in stores. So the only way to get it is through a marathi friend. I bring it to US in bulk on popular demand :)

Ingredients
1 cup toor daal (before cooking)
half chopped onion
half chopped tomato (opt)
1-2 green chillies
3-4 curry leaves
1 tablespoon kaala masala
turmeric, mustard seeds, jeera seeds, salt, oil
1 tablespoon jaggery (can vary according to your liking)
3/4th tablespoon tamarind
Coriander for garnishing

Method
Cook daal with enough water in a pressure cooker. Three whistles should be sufficient. Mash the cooked daal so that its even. In a separate vessel, add some oil. When it heats up, give tadka i.e. add mustard seeds and jeera seeds. After they crack, add turmeric, green chillies and curry leaves. Then fry the onion till golden color. Add tomato. Once its cooked, add daal. Now add the tamarind, jaggery, black masala, salt and some water in any order. Let it boil for sometime. Add water if you like it thin. Taste it and add jaggery, tamarind, salt or masala if u think anything is less. Garnish with coriander.

Goes well with rice or roti. Since this daal is sweetish, make a spicy sabji as a side dish. Hot white rice, aamti and some ghee on top is AWESOME. try it! :)

Pattal Bhaji

Pattal Bhaji is a traditional maharashtrian recipe which is made on festivals and in weddings. Again like many other marathi dishes, this is sweet and sour. but you can make another version of it with garlic and red chillies which is spicy and more varhadi style.

Ingredients:
spinach - 1 cup cut
chana daal - half cup (can be replaced by mung daal too)
some peanuts, cut dry coconut, curry leaves, green chillies
chana daal flour - 1 tablespoon
tamarind, jaggery and salt to taste
for tadka - oil, asophoetida, mustard seeds, chilly powder

Recipe:
put spinach, chana daal, peanuts, dry coconut, curry leaves, half green chilly in pressure cooker. add some water to it and cook until 2 whistles. remove lid after pressure is gone. you can use the same cooker to make the bhaji. mix this cooked mixture well with spoon or whisk. add 1 tablespoon besan to this and some water if it has become dry. cook it for some time. add salt, jaggery and tamarind extract now.
on the side, make tadka: take some oil, add mustard seeds to it when it heats up. lower the heat and add hinga, turmeric and chilly powder to it.
when daal seems done (raw besan taste should be gone), add the tadka on top of the daal and mix gently. taste to see if the sweet and sour taste is balanced or not. adjust as needed and the bhaji/daal is ready.
enjoy it with roti or rice and plain toor daal with some ghee on top

spicy version of this: dont add jaggery and tamarind while the bhaji is cooking. in the tadka, add some red chillies instead of chilly powder and add 1-2 cloves of garlic. rest of the recipe is same. 

Wada-paav

Wada-paav -  popularly known as 'desi burger' is a very famous roadside item in mumbai and is gaining popularity in other parts of maharashtra too. Its a very tasty, spicy and filling snack-cum-lunch dish. Might not be a very good option for you if you are very health conscious, but who cares! On some days when its cold or raining outside and you feel like eating something spicy and hot, this is one of the best options

Ingredients:
2 big or 3 small boiled potatoes
2 green chillies
1 chopped onion
1 spoon ginger garlic paste (fresh ginger and garlic is always better than the ready-made paste)
1 cup chana dal aata (besan)
LOT of oil for frying ;)
1 packet mid-sized paav
chilly powder, dhania jeera powder (opt), salt
lemon juice
baking soda (opt)
Hing
curry leaves
Lasun chutney (recipe not given here)

Method:

Batter: add water and salt in the chana daal aata to make a thin batter. Add some hot oil or 1/2 spoon baking soda in the batter. This is to make the outer cover of wadas crispy. If you add too much of this, the wadas will absord lot of oil and will become very oily. Keep the batter aside. Dont make the batter too thin else the wadas wont get layered nicely before frying.

Filling: Cut the boiled potatoes into small pieces. Add some oil in a pan and put tadka (mustard seeds and jeera seeds). Let them splatter. Then add some hing, turmeric, green chillies and curry leaves. Add the chopped onion in the oil. While its cooking, add the ginger garlic paste. I add ginger garlic paste after adding onions always so that it does not stick, burn or fly out of the pan too much. Once the onion is cooked, add the potatoes. Then add chilly powder, dhania jeera powder, salt, lemon juice according to your taste. I like the wadas to be spicy. So I add considerable amount of chilly powder. Close the lid and let the filling cook properly for sometime. When you close the lid the tastes of the spices go in the potatoes and it tastes better. If the potatoes stick at the bottom, sprinkle some water and keep the gas on low flame (or just use non-stick pan :)). Dont let the sabji become thin and watery since you have to make balls out of it

Wada-paav: Let the filling cook down to room temperature. Make small cake kind of shape out of it. Dip it in the batter completely and deep fry it. Let the color turn to golden yellow. Take out the wadas and keep them on a paper napkin to soak all the extra oil.
Now cut the paav into two and put the lasun chutney inside. Place a wada inside and close the paav nicely so that it is easy to serve and eat.