A Spicy Heap of Vegetarian Mush

Last year, I managed to land an interview at a Well-Known Food Site. A second interview, even. Check me out.  I didn’t get a job (which wound up probably being for the best), and, in the usual not-getting-a-job process, I got no feedback and have no idea why.

But I have to imagine that my space alien way of relating to food probably doesn’t translate well to the standard job interview process.

For example, they asked me what I was most into cooking at that time, and since I was just in the midst of attempting some higher-level stuff (for me), I of course responded “Fancy times.” Because in my brains, that somehow makes sense.

Not Italian, not Seasonal and Local, not New American. Not anything that one would normally see as a tag or category on a Well-Known Food Site. (Except maybe Chow.  I could see Chow.com having that and that's one of the reasons I like Chow.com.  So, there's a clue.  It wasn't Chow.) 

No, I had to say "Fancy Times." Like I’m some sort of poorly-programmed robot whose speaking module includes a down-market translator from Mandarin to English or something.

And now I have a new poorly-programmed robot answer to the perennial favorite food-and-cooking question: what is your favorite kind of food?

You guessed it: a Spicy Heap of Vegetarian Mush.

It’s all I think about. I have to dedicate at least one half day a month to stocking my freezer with the Red Lentil Soup with Harissa Paste and Smoked Hot Paprika.

At any given moment of the day, I am wanting spicy Ethiopian lentils. Call me in the middle of night, ask me what I’m dreaming about and I will sleepily reply “I think it’s called Yemiser W’et.”

I ate through four boxes of Trader Joe’s Pav Bhaji in one 24-hour period. Dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner.

I only stopped because I ran out of Pav Bhaji. And once I ran out, I started looking up recipes online.

It turns out that the Pav in Pav Bhaji actually refers to the bread usually served with the bhaji – the vegetable curry – but I guess one shouldn’t expect to learn Indian cooking traditions from a box.

The dish is considered a kind of street snack food, and contains enough butter to be of concern to healthy eaters. Which is appropriate: what is snack food without the frisson of sin?

It’s made on a tava. The vegetables are cooked with spices and continually mashed until they form a thick paste. A delicious thick paste.

I researched it and came up with a recipe that I thought would most approximate the stuff in the box (recipe in entry below). I tried it this past weekend, and while it doesn’t taste quite like the stuff in a pouch, it still tastes pretty darn good. This version could have used a few more tomatoes so the recipe posted has a higher quantity of those than this, so expect that to look a little looser than this.

I said it's a spicy heap, not necessarily a pretty one.

As mentioned, this is usually eaten with bread, AND there is an additional pat of butter added when served. But my goodness! I like a frisson of sin, not a whole cartload of guilt, so I swap out the carbs for the slightly less anxiety-producing brown basmati or some cross-cultural whole wheat couscous and skip the extra pat altogether.

I have no idea how this stacks up against the real Pav Bhaji, but until I taste that and learn better, I’m happy to have this stocked up in my freezer.

Next up: I attempt Yemiser W’et.