Indian Street Food: Chicken Egg Rolls

Name: Indian Street Food: Chicken Egg Rolls
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 2 cups (473 ml) Maida; 2 tbsp Oil; ½ tsp Salt; a pinch Sugar; 1 tsp Baking powder; Cold water to knead; 1 lbs (454 g) Chicken breast; 2 tbsp Ginger garlic paste; 1 tsp Turmeric powder; 1 tsp Red chilli powder; 2 tsp Salt; Black pepper as per taste; 2 tsp Green chillies; juice of one lemon Lemon juice; Oil for frying; 4 Egg; ¼ cup (59 ml) Milk; 2-3 tsp Green chillies; 3-4 tbsp Cilantro; 1 cups (237 ml) Onions; 1 cups (237 ml) Cucumber; 1 Lime; Tomato sauce and mustard sauce as required

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This Kolkata-style chicken is wrapped in an egg paratha and very similar to street food you would find in India. But each is different! Here is one take on the favorite bite.

The roll was on roll since the day of it’s inception in 1930’s, at Nizam’s kitchen, it has tasted many waters since then, absorbed local flavors wherever it goes, but somewhere down the line it has lost its very own soul. All rolls that you devour in the name of original one, who claims to be more authentic than its neighbor are not Kolkata rolls. And in Kolkata too, all rolls are not created equal. There are specific corners in the city where you will find the best ones.

But who added kathi in my roll? Years back when I had moved to southern part of the country, I had stumbled upon this unique and interesting thing called “kathi roll”. I had no idea then what on earth these were. So I had eagerly waited at the cash counter to hand me over that interesting piece, and when someone mentioned it’s kathi roll, that famous Kolkata roll, I couldn’t stop laughing at that poor thing. Bland chicken pieces with spikes of chili powder hidden beneath wrapped in paratha could not be my beloved Kolkata roll. Kolkata roll is simply different. The flavours are unparalleled, that flakiness which is their hologram is almost impossible to duplicate, those generous shower of green chillies, that red sauce called tomato sauce and the kasundi, the beloved mustard sauce of Bengalis, those countless drizzles of lemon juices over it, that stick of green cucumber, slices of onions and if you throw the eggs out of it, you have literally make the rolls lifeless and soulless.

When Nizam’s started using the bamboo skewers instead of iron ones, the ones in my neighborhood still uses iron skewers, the word “kathi which means bamboo skewers in Bengali, a poor translation though” is added as prefix to roll. I do not know much about this Kolkata, but the one I used to know in 90’s, the word “kathi” roll was almost alien to any true Calcuttan. It was simply called as roll. Egg roll, egg chicken roll, double egg chicken roll, egg tikka roll, egg mutton roll and so on. And yes those rolls were greasy, real greasy but they were also our daily evening snacks, after the college hours. Those rolls were our soul food, comfort food and I sometimes think that without them we could not have survived our academic years.

Kolkata rolls are truly a phenomenon in itself.