- Tarun Kapoor is executive chef at Doha’s Horizon Manor Hotel. Send your feedback to:
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Kathi Roll is a popular street food originating from Kolkata. The original name was Kati but due to its popularity in the southern India where they usually add H next to T and thus Kati Roll became Kathi Kebab.
This particular dish reminds me of my days at Kolkata when after my college I used to walk to a nearby market to relish my evening dose of Kathi Rolls and Misti Doi. Now you don’t need to travel to Kolkata to enjoy this delicacy as it is available in almost every city in India. Today, pretty much any filling rolled up in any kind of Indian flatbread is called a Kati Roll or Kathi.
The Kati Roll is said to have started its life from the Nizam Restaurant in Kolkata. Like everywhere in India, Nizam’s used iron skewers to make their kababs, they were easy to maintain and lasted a lifetime. However, as Nizam’s popularity grew, these long heavy iron skewers started becoming a problem and far more was required than could be handled. In 60s, Nizam moved to bamboo skewers that were lightweight and available in large numbers. These skewers are referred to in Bengali as kati or stick, and the names Kati Kabab and Kati Roll soon became popular.
The name eventually became synonymous with any kind of paratha rolled with stuffing (even when neither kati nor kabab was involved) such as the egg roll or the potato roll, and later even for other breads such as naan or roomali. The original recipe always calls for paratha which is made with dough that is kneaded flat and then a layer of clarified butter is applied and the flattened dough is fan folded to make layers and then rolled into a dough ball. After a while it is again flattened using a rolling pin and half cooked ion griddle and kept aside until needed.
When the paratha return to the griddle they are cooked from both sides and also coated with egg if the customer demands it. The egg is broken onto the griddle and the paratha is smeared with it. Followed by the prepared filling on it and finally rolled into sandwich paper to complete the roll.
If you correlate with other cuisines you’ll notice that every cuisine has a roll preparation which is made with the local bread and local choice of meat, ingredients and flavourings.
The nearest one is Mexican cuisine Tortilla wrap which is made with corn bread and the filling is made with choice of meat with refried beans, peppers, jalapeno, cheese and cumin and cilantro seasoning.
The next one is the Arabic shawarma where shredded marinated chicken is wrapped with crispy fried potato and shredded lettuce leaves with garlic sauce and rolled into kuboos bread and served at roadside to fine dining eateries across the Middle East region.
This recipe is one of my variations to the classic Kathi Roll, where the filling is Indian but the bread is local Arabic bread kuboos.
Kathi roll is not only a tasty food but a convenient food while you are on the go. You can actually carry it along and unwrap it as you eat.
Kuboos Kathi Roll
Serves 4
Ingredients
Kuboos bread 4 no
Chicken breast 250 gm
Onion, slices 100 gm
Capsicum, slices 100 gm
Green chili 15 gm
Ginger paste 1 tsp
Garlic paste 1 tsp
Green chili paste 1 tsp
Salt To taste
Coriander leaves Few sprigs
Olive oil 1 tbsp
Romaine lettuce 8-10 leaves
Cumin powder 1 tsp
Chat masala ½ tsp
Lemon wedge 4 no
Mint chutney 100 ml
Method
Marinate the chicken cubes with ginger, garlic, green chili paste and salt and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan and sauté chicken cubes in it, stir to cook evenly from all sides.
Add cumin powder, chat masala and adjust the seasoning.
For the Kathi Roll, spread lettuce leaf on kuboos bread.
Add sliced onion and capsicum and the prepared chicken mixture.
Drizzle some mint chutney on top, coriander leaves.
Roll the bread to make a roll and secure using cloves.
Serve hot garnished with some onion rings, and lemon wedge.
Note: By making the following changes you can make different types of Kathi Rolls:
1. Add omelette to make a chicken egg roll.
2. Replace chicken with cottage cheese in the recipe to get a cottage cheese rolls.
3. Add any leftover dry vegetable preparation to make a veg roll.
4. Add shredded fried chicken to get a fried chicken roll.
5. Replace chicken with mutton kebabs to get mutton kathi rolls.
