Missal pav is a very popular breakfast item in Maharashtra. It is a zanzanit / very spicy and tangy gravy topped with raw chopped onions, mix farsan, corriander leaves and generous squeeze of lemon. Best had with Pav (bread to soak up all the liquid.
Though this is popularly served for breakfast, it makes for a wholesome lunch or dinner too.
There is Kolhapuri missal, Puneri missal, mumbai missal but the one thing common is the spicy gravy. My missal recipe is mildly spicy but feel free to amp up the spice level as per your liking. and dont forget to keep a box of tissues handy! 🙂
Ingredients:
- Moth beans 1/3 cup (soaked for 8 hours)
- Onions- 1 large finely chopped
- Haldi 1 tsp
- Kashmiri chilli powder 1 tsp
- Lasun khobra masala 2 tbsps / garam masala+red chilli powder 1 tbsp each
- Mustard seeds 1 tsp
- Jeera / cumin 1 tsp
- Aesofotida a pinch
- Salt 2 tsp
- Sugar ½ tsp
- Coriander leaves finely chopped for garnishing
- Oil 2 tbsp
For masala :
- Onion 1 medium sized sliced
- Garlic 10 cloves
- Ginger 1inch piece
- Dry coconut grated ¾ cup
- Coriander leaves ¼ cup
- Oil 1 tbsp
- Tamarind 1 tbsp
Method:
Soak the moth beans preferably overnight or atleast for 6 hours.
Heat a pan and dry roast the grated dry coconut. Be careful not to burn it. Once it turns brown take it out on plate.
In the same pan add a table spoon of oil and sauté the sliced onions until golden brown.
Add the garlic cloves and the ginger piece to this and sauté for another minute.
Add the coriander leaves and sauté. To this add the dry roasted coconut and sauté for another minute. Take it out on a plate and cool.
Once cooled grind this mixture along with the tamarind to a fine paste and your coconut masala paste is ready.
In the same pan heat 2 tbsps oil, add mustard seeds. Once they splutter add the cumin, hing and finely chopped onions and sauté till they are golden in colour.
Add haldi, kashmiri chill powder, lasun khobra masala( if this is not available u can add 1 tbsp each of garam masala and spicy red chilli powder) and sauté till it releases oil.
Add the soaked matki, salt, sugar and add 4 cups of hot water. Bring it to a boil and simmer till the matki is cooked.
If you want you can pressure cook the matki and then add it here. in that case 2 whistles will be enough to cook the matki.
Once the matki is cooked add the ground coconut masala paste.
Check the salt and the spice levels and adjust to your liking. Also adjust the consistency. The consistency of the gravy has to be very liquidy.
Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves.
Serve it hot. Missal is served with lots of chopped onion, (finely chopped cucumber and tomato also goes well with this) chopped green corriander and mix of farsan and pav.
This same recipe can be used to make usal where you add less water (just a cup of water) to the gravy. Usal is served with hot chapatis or rotis. it pairs well with rice too.
