Crocodile Meat with Bombay Pav

From the Streets of Mumbai to your very own kitchen!! Bombay Pav!!

South Africa is home to many wondrous beasts. The country is populated with numerous wild life sanctuaries, game reserves and national parks. I find myself very fortunate to be able to live in the country and get an experience of the local culture and the wilderness.

Croc City is a very cute little farm located quite close to where we stay. While crocodiles many not win any jungle beauty contests, they certainly are interesting animals to observe, for they can be extremely still and lazy one minute and amazingly quick and ferocious the next.

All lined up

At Croc City, they not just breed these remarkable cold-blooded creatures but also have a good reptile display that you can actually touch. While my sweet husband carefully stayed away from anything that moved, I took this opportunity to feel up a boa. And God! Aren’t they just incredibly smooth and sexy. I don’t know what it is about snakes that interests me but I just love the touch and feel of them. Ofcource at this reptile park they keep the venomous mambas and cobras well out of reach but you can have a shot with a python wrapped around your neck. The snakes are fed every morning, so you don’t have to worry about a rock python getting a little too squeezee for comfort.

What is not comfortable however, is having a tarantula run up your arm with the guide warning you not to hurt the furry black spider. It doesn’t help to think of the hurt that the tarantula can do to YOU!

.

And thats the runaway tarantula

The farm also breeds the crocodiles for meat and oil. Crocodile oil is supposedly very effective in curing eczema and many other skin ailments. Fresh Croc Meat in neat little plain and spiced packages were also available. They looked just like chicken but cost more than double of that. I am not very choosy about what I eat and am willing to try almost any kind of food. But even I chickened out from sampling the croc meat!!

However, if I had actually bought and cooked croc, it would taste great with some Bombay Pav. Pav is basically a kind of dinner roll and though its available almost everywhere, nothing beats the taste of the genuine Bombay Pav.

This is a simple recipe and involves just the basics of bread making. I have used butter in the pav, but you can also use Olive Oil as a lighter option.

Makes 8 medium sized pavs

What we need:

All-purpose Flour – 3 cups

Yeast – 1 tsp
Sugar – 1 tsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Melted Butter/Olive oil – 3 tblsp
Oil – a bit
Warm Water – As needed
Egg – 1 (optional)

How we do it:

Take half a cup of lukewarm water and dissolve the sugar in it. Add the yeast and stir till mixed. Leave it for 10 minutes till it gets frothy.

Mix the flour and salt in a kneading bowl. Add the yeast water and more warm water as required and knead till a rough dough is formed. Now add the butter/oil and keep kneading until the dough becomes soft and elastic.

Coat the dough and the inside of a bowl with a bit of oil and cover with a cling film/moist towel and let it rest for about an hour. The bowl can be the same that you used to knead the flour. The dough will rise and become double its original size, the bowl should be big enough to accommodate that.

After the dough rises, punch a few holes in it.

Once the dough has risen to almost double the original size, punch a few holes in it and knead it again for a few minutes. Make equal sized small balls and place on a greased baking dish. Keep the dough balls close to each other so that they will touch when the dough rises. Cover with a cling film and keep for another hour.

 

In the meantime prepare an Egg Wash, which is just a well beaten egg. Alternatively you can also use milk. However I personally find that egg gives bread great colour and shine.

Giving the dough an egg wash

Preheat the oven to 180^oC.

Dont you love that golden colour

After your dough has risen again, brush with the egg wash or milk to coat the top and sides well. Place in the oven for about 12-15 minutes until it has properly browned.

Take it out of the oven and rub some butter on the warm pav. The pav is soft, cushiony and has a great texture.

Have it with your favourite curry or just have it warm with some butter. Delicious either way.

You can see the air pockets that gives the pav great texture and makes it super soft. 

 

 

Love to hear what you think!

[Facebook Comment For Blogger]