Homemade Chicken roll for breakfast

Hello! Hello! 
Wish you a very happy new year 2022! 
I know it is a little late but January is still on and so I guess is valid. 😊
With so many posts waiting to see the light of the day here, I was wondering which one to start the year with. 
And then zeroed in on this Chicken roll or chicken kathi kabab or whatever you may choose to call it. 

The first time I bit into a chicken roll was when I was very young. A new restaurant had opened in our little town and Ma took me there for my first experience of a chicken roll. 

I remember the crisp paratha, rolled, with bits of dark coloured meat and white slices of onions peeping at the end. One bite and I fell in love with the flavours.

The paratha was sweetish, the pieces of meat had a flavour of garlic and there came some ketchup in the following bites. The crunch of the onions brought everything together. 

My next rendezvous with the chicken roll was when I was visiting my mamabari and one of the elder cousin dadas took us to a street side shop. He was studying engineering then and we young ones looked up to him as he had seen more cities than us and had so much to say. 
He taught us how to tear the wrapping paper from the roll as ate it, while expertly guiding us across the road, yapping all importantly all the while. 
I don't remember much about that particular roll. 

Then I came to Pune and was introduced to the very famous Kapila's kathi kebab on Dhole Patil road. 

As students, we would go there in the evening, get one roll each and sit on the steps of a bank adjacent to it and chat the evening away. 
I have eaten a lot many rolls henceforth in life, but nothing comes close to Kapila's kathi kebab. Ever. 
And in all these years, their masala and taste hasn't changed even an iota. 

I still go for one once in a while .... and go back in years and get flooded with memories from all those years back. 

Now I make rolls at home.
The last time I made some chicken meat balls a few days back. If you have seen my stories on insta, you will know. I baked them in the oven and it was way quicker and easier than pan frying them. 

 I have given up deep frying them ages ago. These turn out beautifully juicy inside and crisp outside.
I make a big batch and freeze them for later use.
They are so versatile and can be added to a variety of dishes. 

I also love to munch on them as snacks too. 😊

Today I treated myself to a chicken roll for breakfast . Made some soft squarish parathas that I have grown up seeing Ma make .... a result of her growing up in Delhi. 

Reheated some kabobs in the oven and crushed them lightly on the porotas .

Stir fried some onions and green chillies on the tawa as the rollwala from the street would do.

A sprinkle of dry masala spices, some drops chilli sauce and our chicken kathi roll / kathi kebab  was good to go.

With the beautiful weather outside, with the clouds hanging low on the hills beyond and a light spray of rain, I loved this little treat to myself, relaxing with my current read .... yes, I read while eating 😄

 Here's wishing you all a wonderful new year again. 
Stay safe. Stay healthy. 
And may this year bring you all the happiness and freedom that have been kept away from us by the dreadful pandemic. 
Much love 💝 

Fried rice and Chilli chicken ... a Bengali's favourite classic combo meal

I cooked this for lunch last Sunday. 
And the way it turned out to be, immediately decided it should be on the blog. 

I have been missing eating out for a while now. Not that we used to eat out very frequently, before the pandemic shut the whole world up at home, but yes, once in a while we did.

Or at least  had the freedom and the option to go out and grab a bite when not feeling like cooking or stepping into the kitchen. 

Now, however, life has been revolving around the three meals and snacks the whole day.

Not to mention the boredom of the familiar tastes and masalas . 

And Chinese food being my favourite, it is there that I was hit the most.

I do cook chinese food at home ..... mostly for dinners. But that is limited to just stir fried vegetables, hakka noodles and my quick, cheat's  Chilli Chicken. 

This time, however, my intense craving for Chinese food made me decide to whip up a meal.

And in detail .... no short cuts. 

Easier said than done. 

Chinese food has one elaborate thing for sure .... and that is prepping. 

Cooking the actual dish does not take much time .... just throw in a little of this, a little of that, toss, toss, toss .... and done!
But the prepping .... boy! ..... takes up all the time you have and also exhausts you. 

I realised I had bitten off more than I can chew by the time I was halfway and neck deep into the prep work. And I thanked the good gods for providing me the sense to eat a heavy breakfast that morning. 
The greater part of my problem is cooking two kinds of food .... vegetarian and non vegetarian. 

And keeping everything apart so that nothing touches each other, planning to use the oil for deep frying for the vegetarian part first and then use it for non vegetarian ..... and so on.

These are the little things that require constant alertness and are really stressful and exhausting. 

I had leftover rice in the fridge. 

I had marinated chicken in the freezer. 

I had a block of paneer in the fridge.

B assured me he would chop the vegetables. 

And so I dived headlong into cooking lunch. 

For the Chilli Chicken : 

I make the Chilli chicken the way I have grown up eating .... with lots of green chillies nad no capsicums. You may add them if you like though. 

Need : 

Chicken pieces - 250 gms, marinated with ginger garlic paste, soy sauce and a little vinegar 

Cooking oil , enough for deep frying

Corn flour  - 1 tbsp

Maida / Apf - 3 tbsp

Rice flour - 1 tsp 

Diced onions 

Chopped green chillies 

Minced garlic

Minced ginger

Salt - to taste 

Sugar - to taste 

How to : 

Mix the flours with the marinated chicken. 

Heat oil and deep fry the pieces.  Keep aside. 

In a wok, heat a little oil. 

Add  garlic and ginger. Then add the green chillies and the diced onion. 

Stir fry on high heat and add the chicken pieces, soy sauce, vinegar and salt. 

Toss on high heat till everything comes together. 

For the  Vegetable Fried Rice  : 

Need : 

Leftover rice 

Cooking oil

Chopped vegetables like carrots, green peas, french beans, cauliflower

Chopped onions
Chopped green chillies

Minced garlic

Minced ginger

Soy sauce

A little vinegar

Black pepper powder

Salt

Sugar

How to : 

Heat oil in a seasoned iron wok. 

Add chopped garlic and ginger. Toss.

Add chopped onion and green chillies. 

Add the vegetables and toss on high heat.

Add the rice and the rest of the ingredients and toss on high heat till everything comes together. 
Serve hot. 

 
And now .... as promised on my last post .... the winner of the giveaway of the beautiful book by Sandeepa Bongmom, Those Delicious Letters . 

I made chits and drew out the name of  ..... 
Julie of Savoury Delights !!!!! 

Congratulatoins Julie!!! 
Do drop me an email with your full address and phone number so that I can ship the book to you. 


My next post is going to be on another classic ..... so stay tuned folks! 

Stay safe. Stay at home. 💓


You can find my other recipes on Chinese food here. 

Pineapple Chicken .... recipe for a quick, light and tangy chicken cooked with pineapples

It has been a beautiful morning. 
After the deluge of two days, back to back, it is all warm, sunny and bright all around. 
Just when we thought monsoon is over, it started to rain in earnest again. 
Humid, suffocating days vanished and gave way to torrential rains. Huge pellets of water drops, shooting down like arrows, with a roar and the dark sky rumbled ceaselessly. 
It turned hazy and gray all around and the distant buildings and trees were lost to the vision. 
The trees stood still, accepting the beating of rain. Drinking in quietly. 
The leaves however were happy, shiny and all bright and quivering under the pure water. 

The dry earth drank  to its fill. The little stream by our house started to run again .... dark muddy water happily gurgling and rushing forth with white froth lacing. 
The birds did not come to my balcony for a drink. I could see them sitting on the branches .... near their  nests. The crows and the eagles were soaked through and looked different. 
The Bulbuls were restless and did come out to prance around for a while before diving back into the thickets. The sparrows are nowhere around too. 

Today, everybody was back on my balcony. 
Chirping, cawing and even screeching out to me ... demanding their share of biscuits and my breakfast. 
The water bowl was full with the fresh rainwater ... I did not change it. 
B had cleaned the balcony of all dirt and mud from the plant pots yesterday, as I stood in the rain to soak in the coolness, after I finished with the chores. ( Yes yes, I have already written about this on my instagram post ) . 
So it was good to spend the morning in the balcony. 

I have a  chair in the small space to our balcony and often sit there to take in some fresh breeze, in between my work.
Today, that breeze seemed so fresh, heavy with the damp smell of rains and of freshly beaten green, that it took me back to my Dadu's house back home. 
I could smell the water laden, cooling breeze coming from across the huge pond, carrying with it the smell of damp grass and leaves, along with the fragrance of the flowers of the old Jamrul tree. 

I could see Thamma sitting at the khirki duar ( one of the side entrances to the house ), with her back to me, looking out at the pond and its dark, calm waters that had a very light ripple on the surface, made by the breeze. Her long hair, only slightly white, spread all over her back. Once in a while, she would run her fingers through them .... to help them dry sooner. 

And I realise, that with time, I am slowly turning into my Thamma. 
As I sit in my chair, loving the breeze on me, looking out to the small forest and the stream, I realise this is my khirki duar.
My little door to the world I love to look at. 
And am grateful for that. 
You see, I have always wanted to be like Thamma. 

Coming back, I had cooked this beautiful, quick dish of chicken with pineapple, a few weeks back. 
I loved it so much that I wanted to make a post here .... for my own self to come back to the recipe when I needed to. 

*  I had marinated the chicken pieces before freezing them ... which helped it to cook faster I guess. 
If you are making it fresh, then do keep it marinated for at least an hour. 

* I had some leftover rice, so added it for the carb content and make a full meal. 
You may or may not. 


Need : 

To marinate : 

Chicken pieces - cut into bite sized pieces ( I use the thigh pieces) 
Grated ginger
Grated garlic
Vinegar - a little
Soy sauce 
Honey 
Oil
Salt
Sugar

Mix everything together and keep aside for an hour. 

Other ingredients : 

Pineapple pieces
Onion cut into cubes
Chopped green chillies 
Chopped ginger
Red chilli flakes 
Crushed black pepper 
Oil
Salt


How to : 


Heat oil in a pan. 

Add  the pineapple pieces and toss well. 
Sprinkle some red chilli flakes on them and keep aside. 

Now add the chicken pieces on high heat and sear them well. 
Toss, cover and cook till they are done. 
Remember not to overcook. 

Now raise heat, add the rest of the ingredients and toss well. 
If using rice, add now. 

Add the pineapple pieces.
Mix everything together. 

Serve hot.  

Enjoy!! 

Eat healthy. Eat to your fill. 
And stay safe.


Here is a little reminder about the giveaway I am doing.
Hop over to know the details.






 

 

Chicken pepper fry

And just like that, the rains are gone. 
We did not get as much rainfall this year as we would have liked to. 
Especially when we are not going out. 
With the whole world and our lives coming to a a standstill, due to the pandemic raging all around us, all we had was the rains outside to look out at. 
Sitting by the window, or standing in the balcony or lounging in the sofa that I drag half way across the room just for the view ..... all we had was the gentle, quiet Pune rains and fog outside. 

The trees have grown a lot over the years and are now almost at our eye level at the seventh floor. 
Their leaves shiny, healthy, glistening in the rain. 
And swaying to the wind. 
The birds go on with their activities. 
And we go on with life. 
Daily, mundane chores. 
The only welcome break was the rains. 
And that too has gone now. Too soon. 

I don't mind  the sun though. 
The mornings are brighter and clearer now. 
And sunnier. 
There is a chill in the air and the feel of autumn is already in the air. 
Ganpati festival is on. 
Listening to the bhajans and aarti songs all around give an air of sanity. 
As if nothing has changed. 
And all is well with the world. 

I made this beautiful, spicy Chicken pepper fry a few days back for lunch. 
It was quick to make and was the perfect finger food for the dark, rainy days. 
The heat of the black pepper warmed the body as well as the cockles of the heart .... just like Ma  has cooked a warm meal and is feeding me  lovingly.

Need : 

Chicken pieces, on the bone (you may use boneless too ) 
Ginger garlic paste

Soy sauce

Vinegar / Lemon juice

Freshly crushed black pepper 
Chopped onions

Chopped garlic 

Chopped green chillies 

Curry leaves 

Salt - to taste

Sugar - to taste

Cooking oil 

How to : 

Marinate the chicken with vinegar, soy sauce, ginger garlic paste , a little oil and  salt. 
I marinated and froze it. You can keep it for 1 hour. 

Heat oil in a flat pan. 

Let in the chicken pieces one by one. 
Sear them on high heat till the sides turn crisp and brown. 

Lower heat and add the onions, garlic , green chillies and the curry leaves. 
Add salt and the crushed pepper, cover and cook till the chicken is done. 

If you want less spicy, then add the black pepper last, just before removing from heat. 

Serve hot . 

The chicken was crisp on the outside and juicy and soft inside. 
The meat  peeled away smoothly .... I guess the marination did the magic. 

I had made some crisp dosa and so paired with them. 
With some beautiful peanut chutney on the side, this was my lunch on a dark, cold rainy day. 
Will go great with laccha parathas too. 


Stay safe folks. Eat well. Eat healthy. 

Chilli chicken from my childhood ... with lots of chillies and no Capsicum

 

( If you are a vegetarian, you can make this recipe with paneer or cauliflower. )

I do not claim this recipe of the Chilli chicken as authentic or perfect or even the right way to make Chinese chilli chicken. When young, this is the way chilli chicken was made not only at our house but also the ones that we got from restaurants.
Having said that, I must say that eating out was not something that we did much. One of the reasons is me ... I was painfully shy and could not imagine sitting in a public place and eating ... no matter however good the ambience or the company.
It nearly killed me when people, who were mostly strangers to me,  would walk up to our table and talk to Bapi and Ma.
I would never accompany my parents or relatives to any wedding ceremony invitations just because of that terrifying thought of sitting among a huge number of people and eating. 
This continued till I left home for studies. At the hostel and the PG where I stayed, I slowly came to realise that if I did not loosen up, I would stay hungry. Which I did on most days.
Now, while I have changed a lot and do go out with groups to eat out, I still come back home with just a few nibbles and an empty stomach.

So, the only solution was to bring home or call for a takeaway. Which Bapi sometimes did. Like most Bengalis, there would be the fried rice and chilli chicken combination. And a beautiful chicken bharta,  that I so miss these days.
The chilli chicken lived up to its name. It would have lots and lots of green chillies, fried along with the onions ... which were both crunchy as well as sweet.
The chicken pieces would be with bones ... which is why I loved it so much ... and have a thick coating that would have soaked up the sauce by the time we sat down to eat ... giving it a slightly soggy yet delightfully sweet and sour taste.
Sometimes the chicken chunks would be red in colour and Bapi would exclaim "Colour!Again!" and get up to drain the red oil into the kitchen sink.
I loved to soak a piece of tandoori naan, that came with the bharta, into that reddish, sweet and sour oily sauce and chew on it ( I told you I am a complete desi when it comes to food).

Later, after I landed in Pune, I came across the new version of the Chilli chicken .... boneless, small pieces, deep fried to a chewy chunk, not a trace of green chilli and horror of all horrors, loaded with big chunks of capsicum!
Why the dish has capsicum is a question that has stayed unanswered to me still. You will get a few, soggy and limp slices of onions too. But you will have to search for a decent piece of chicken from under those big chunks of capsicum.
After trying to search for a good chilli chicken in Pune, I finally gave up. Sadly, even today, there is not a single restaurant in Pune where I can ask for a good Chilli chicken.
So took it to making it myself.

I do not make it too often though, especially as it is only for myself at most times. But if I am making Chinese, I do make these. On the bone for family; boneless for guests.
This time I made it with chunky, chicken thigh pieces ... ideal pieces for a juicy yet dry dish. And shallow fried the chicken, instead of deep frying it.
Pretty quick to make.
You can fry the chickem pieces and store in the fridge, covered of course, and toss it with the rest of the things just before serving.
While they are the perfect accompaniment to a fried rice or a Hakka noodles dish, they make great starters or finger food too for snacks.
Pair them with some good wine or a cocktail for a light evening fare.

Need :

Chicken - 250 gms, chopped into small pieces
Corn flour - 3 tbsp
Maida / Apf - 1 tbsp
Baking soda - a small pinch
Ginger paste - 1 tsp
Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Vinegar - 1 tbsp
Green chilli sauce - to taste
Crushed black pepper - 1 tsp
Onion - 1 big, cut into cubes
Green chillies - 6 to 8, chopped
Garlic - 6 to 8 cloves, chopped
Soy sauce - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Sugar - to taste
Cooking oil - 4 tbsp

How I make it :

Marinate the chicken pieces with vinegar + a little salt + soy sauce + ginger paste + garlic paste  for around half an hour.

Then add the corn flour + maida + baking soda + black pepper to it and mix well.

Heat 3 tbsp of oil in an open, flat pan.
Carefully let in the chicken pieces and shallow fry, a small batch at a time, and remove on a paper  napkin.

Add the rest of the oil ( if needed ) to the pan and add the garlic.

Fry a little and then add the green chillies + the onions + the chilli sauce.
Adjust salt + sugar.

Add the chicken pieces and toss well on high heat.

Serve immediately.

Enjoy!!

Ps: I did not realise I had already ranted about the capsicum thing in one of my earlier posts ... i.e. the quick stir fried Chilli chicken. Try that too.

Quick Stir Fried Chilli Chicken

( I have made this dish with cauliflower too and it tastes just as good ... so vegetarians and vegans can give it a try. )

Chilli chicken has to have chillies. And it should be hot ... real hot. Back home we got chilli chicken that had biggish pieces of chicken ... bones and all ... not the pathetic wee little boneless pieces we get here ... deep fried in a thick batter and tossed in soy gravy.

And did it have chillies! Either chopped or slit lengthwise, it would be full of fresh green chillies that used to be so hot we had to pick them out from the dish before gorging.

Out here, what we get is so different. First you get small bite sized pieces of god-knows-what, dunked into so dark a soy gravy that you feel it has been deliberately used to hide whatever is missing.



And the worse part is you get no chillies. The whole dish would be full of capsicums .... green capsicums ... cut thickly, often bigger than the chicken pieces.
How I hate them! I mean I really cannot understand this obsession with capsicums / bell peppers when it comes to cooking Chinese dishes.

Does not matter if you have good vegetables or not, does not matter if you have good chicken or prawns or not ... just throw in mugfuls of soy sauce and handfuls of ajinomoto and bucketfuls of bell peppers ... and you have a Chinese dish done.
Even the best Chinese restaraunts are obsessed with dunking in bell peppers into dishes.

Anyway, when I want to have chilli chicken, I make some for myself. And I do not go the whole way of deep frying and stuff.
Just a quick toss of things available at home ... and a quick cooking process. And a hot dish is ready.

So if you are home after a long day, just put this on the stove top and put your feet up. Your dinner would be ready in less than half an hour. :-)


Need :

Chicken - 6 to 8 pieces ( I use Real Good )
White Vinegar - around 3 tbsp
Onions - 2, medium sized, sliced thickly
Garlic - 8 cloves, chopped
Green chillies - according to preference, chopped
Soy sauce - 2 tbsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Cooking oil - 1 tbsp

How to :

Marinate the chicken with vinegar ( do not add salt ) and keep aside ( for as long as you make the other preparations).

Chop and slice the vegetables.

Heat oil in a wok / kadahi.

Add the onions, garlic and chillies and stir fry for a while.

After the onions turn pinkish, add the chicken with the vinegar water. Stir for a while.

Add salt, cover and cook till chicken is done. ( No need to add water as the chicken pieces will release water ... but if you are using boneless pieces, you might need to).

Remove cover and check if chicken is tender. Do not overcook it ... it will turn tough.

Add the soy sauce ( remember, soy has salt ... so add accordingly ) and the sugar.
Cook for some more time ... or till desired consistency of gravy.

Serve hot.



Goes great with rice or bread. I love to have it with crisp rotis too.

If you have any left over rice in the fridge, you can add it to this at the last part of cooking ( you will need to adjust the seasonings ) ..... make a great one pot meal too!

Enjoy all !! :-)

PS : Inspite of my repeated requests, my inbox is still being flooded with events & roundups announcements. So this is to declare that I've finally had to put all those mail ids through a sieve that will dump them into trash.