EGG ROLL

Street Food has its own charm, I can swear by it. Except for few health freaks, all of us love to have them often. Besides Phuchka and Jhalmuri, Egg Roll is perhaps the most popular street food of Kolkata. Every corner of a street in Kolkata has a roll centre. Remembering my college days, inspite of mom  packing my lunch box..... me along with my friends would flock in front of Sanatanda's Roll Centre to grab one. We looked like swarm of bees searching for food. You won't believe with what expertise and how fast the cook used to roll the parathas. Amazing to watch. Most of us belonged to middle class families with at least two siblings. We used to get a limited pocket money. It was not affordability only, our parents believed giving handful of money to youngsters only spoils them. So with that limited resource, two friends would share one roll. Good enough because rolls are too filling. Besides, we had to save a considerable amount for our regular visits to the movie theatres bunking the classes. Yes I have no qualms in admitting that I had been an average student althrough. At college I was mostly seen at the clean and green lawn in side the college premises taking a bite of Sanatanda's egg roll or at the neighbouring movie theatres.

     Last year, few of our friends visited our college, a sort of nostalgia paralysed us.....the hall, the classrooms, the lawn and there still is Sanatanda's Roll Centre. He grew old, his cook  may have changed, but the rolls taste better perhaps,  serving the present generation students. We were back to the 90's, with limited resource, no cell phones, travelling in overcrowded buses, we were happy, for being with and for each other.

    Not allowing myself to forget my roots, I keep trying to recreate my city at home admitting  the comfort of staying in  the five star ambience of this island. Why do we need to be pretentious? Advantage of staying here is that you never feel you are in a foreign land, being a cosmopolitan hub, it is very accommodative, honestly.

     I think paratha rolls are common in many countries with a little variation. It is common allover my subcontinent, in Middle East and here too. I wished to share with you the recipe of Egg Rolls typical of Kolkata, The City Of Joy.

INGREDIENTS :[for the paranthas]
Refined Flour : 300 gm
Oil : 3 tbsp
Salt : 3 pinches
Sugar : 1/2 tsp
Water : 1/2 small cup or as required.

INGREDIENTS :[for the filling]
Egg : 3 [always 3eggs:2paratha ratio]
Salt : As required
Onion : 1 big [sliced]
Green Chillies : 2[chopped]
Lemon Juice : 2tsp for each roll
Tomato Ketchup 1 tbsp for each roll.
Oil : 1/2 small cup
Salad : As You Wish

METHOD :

Let us prepare the dough first. Take the flour in a wide mouthed vessel. Make a hole in the middle. Pour in the oil, add the salt and sugar. Rub very well for 2 minutes. Now adding little water at a time, with help of your palm form a soft, smooth dough. It will take about 15 minutes. Cover the dough with a soft wet cloth for 1/2 an hour.

Now beat the eggs together with very little salt in a bowl. Keep aside. Slice the onion, chop the green chillies.  Cut and deseed the lemons. Take out the ketchup bottle from the refrigerator . Pour the oil in a cup.

Remove the wet cloth from the dough. Make roundels, flatten with your palms. With help of a rolling pin and a base make round shape parathas with a touch up of oil. Put on heat a tawa / flattened frying pan. Fry each parantha well with 1/2 tsp oil.

Now time to make the omelettes. In the same pan, put 1/4 tsp oil. Once hot, with help of a ladle, pour the egg batter on the pan, to make one at a time. Put the paratha over the egg which is still in the liquid state, so it gets stuck to the paratha. Turn over and cook well. Transfer to a plate.

Once done fill each one with sliced onion, chopped green chillies, squeeze lemon juice over them and drizzle tomato ketchup and roll up. Done. It must be served hot.