This year has been going super slow in terms of food blogging it seems. I just noticed today that I only have posted 9 blogs in the year so far and already we are at the end of a quarter. Last year this time I had already 20 posts. I have not even done half of it so far and hence this quick post. The workload is frankly quite high and hence the time for social activities has gone down drastically. Plus this summer heat doesn't help either. The more hot and sunny it gets the more I feel my creative juices get into hibernation mode. The light is just too harsh even at early morning to get some good shot even indoors. 

Though I do have a basic studio lighting setup but still I don't feel like dragging all my equipment out when I am already feeling lethargic due to to the weather. So most f the times if you have noticed I prefer shooting in natural light unless there is a deadline to shoot at unholy hours. The point is managing the exposure with this strong sun, is a task in itself. But then lazy people like me still find jugadu ways to navigate the situation. From the time lockdown started I had been shooting with a professional camera and  I tried out shooting in the various light situations across all the rooms in my house. I had read about this suggestion from a professional photographer who had given this important tip to beginners who are starting out on food photography to explore the light in all the available spaces in the house to get a fair enough idea which light at which time of the day works best for which kind of food shots. Like my guest bedroom has a window where I can get the best backlight. Whereas the living room is best to shoot everything with a sidelight. And most of the times I have seen I like the outcomes when I use sidelight. They really accentuate the textures and bring out the colors. 

When I started off, flatlays were my favorite photography angle. One of the main reason was when I had a lot of food in the scene I could accommodate all of them easily in a flatlay and number two reason was I was shooting mainly gravies which most of the time didn't have much of a height element to emphasize. There was a point I felt that I am only food in flatlays and other angles like straight on angle or 25-75 was not meant for me. And I had concluded that without even trying to learn the other angles or composition styles. That is what happens to most beginners, we struggle to find a niche and then don't want to come out of that comfort zone. We give up even before we try and keep repeating the same thing for years instead of exploring new things in which we might even be better. 

After a point I was bored with the same kind of setup. Plus flatlays at times leaves very little to imagination as you expose all the cards or the elements of your composition in the frame. Everything is right there in the frame, very little is hidden away from the sight. Also to fill a frame you need a lot of elements - that was taxing. I had to cook at least 2 sides with a main dish to fill in the gaps in the frame. Too much time went for cooking and very little time left to setup the frame and think about a good composition. When I say good composition - I mean a frame which might tell a story, which my give you some fodder for thoughts, or have a technicality which might pique the interest of the audience. At that time I was just shooting flat frames with just the food. 

So I started spending some time on Instagram to look for inspirations. I found that Indonesian and Middle eastern food photographers did wonderful creative food frame which left you looking at the frame for long thinking who did they manage to get a certain effect. I am not saying the European or American food photographers are bad, but the aesthetics brought on the table (literally) by the Indonesian photographers appealed to my taste. The way they used the light, the way they brought in traditional utensils or local produces and created a rustic looking frame was simply mind blowing for me. I did notice they give a lot of importance to tiny nuances in the frame like a speck of chilli or a pod of garlic etc. and it was definitely not a minimalist frame. But the main takeaway was, creating moody frames aesthetically. 

I keep looking for such kind of inspiration everyday and anytime anything catches my fancy I save it or bookmark it. While I cannot say I am an expert photographer now, I have certainly come a long way from 2020. I can confidently say, now I understand a few things better than what I did when I started off and it definitely makes me happy. Even if its a delta growth I feel happy. Checkout for behind the scene for this particular frame on my Instagram feed to see how this shot was setup.

Today morning as I was making my breakfast I thought of shooting it as well. I think I had mentioned in a previous blog that I was turning to healthy food options slowly. Most of the days my morning breakfast is different king of smoothies. They are so easy to make that you don't even need to put your mind into making one. Just throw in the ingredients and blend. Some days I add nuts or chia seeds to make things a little interesting. I feel smoothies get a robust texture and and nice body when you add banana to it along with any other fruit of your choice. Moreover bananas add a natural sweetness to the smoothies as well. More than a pure Mango smoothie I like the taste of the combination of mango and banana. Try it once if you haven't yet. 

And if you think smoothies are the most boring things to start your day with, nothing can be far form truth. I know because I was also one of those people who didn't get excited at the thought of smoothies first thing in the morning. The first small step was to convince myself to start my day with something healthy and have controlled portion of food throughout the day. Having smoothies for breakfast is a great way to portion control and yet have a filling breakfast. The banana in the smoothie helps keep you full for a long time till lunch so that you don't feel any mid morning hunger pangs. Also a small tip is to replace sugar with honey, it helps loose weight over a period of time. This is a really really simple recipe and I will put some other smoothie recipe soon. 

Ingredients for garnish:

• Chia Seeds - 1 tsp

Equipment:

• Blender

Procedure: 

1.  Soak the chia seeds in 3 tbsp of water for about 10 minutes.

2. Add all the ingredients - milk, banana, mango and honey in high-powered blender.

Note: I prefer to have cold smoothie hence I use chilled milk but you can use room temperature milk too.

3. Blend for 1-2 minutes until you get a smooth and creamy texture.

Note: Color will depend on the quality of the Mango used

4. Pour into serving glasses. Top it off with soaked chia seeds. Enjoy!

14 February 

Happy Valentine's Day to all those who are celebrating!

I always remember Valentine's day not for the 'celebration of love' day but as one of my closest friend's birthday. She was my batchmate when I joined the corporate world. We were in the same induction class and both of us being a little awkward in social interactions we kind of started gelling together. She was very intelligent and a true geek in every sense. I was not that much of a geek but still I loved her company because the other kids in the batch seemed too different from me. They were outgoing, party loving, pulling night-outs and living the best time of their life with the new found independence of staying away form home. Me on the other hand felt homesick in Mumbai being so far away form home.  Partying was never my forte not was hanging out in a large group. So I felt pretty lonely in an unknown city. This friend of mine was a localite so she was staying at her home. The very first interaction point was the food she got from home. I used to love aunty's cooking and her dabba became one of our conversation topics. Food was always an ice breaker for me, even back in the days.

From classroom, when we moved on to real projects, we became bosom buddies. We discovered there was more to us beyond our asocial construct. We enjoyed office trips, we ran an inhouse magazine for 6 months, we did many such things which was quite enriching for us. I know you might be thinking these guys are such bores, at an age where they should have partied hard, she is talking about mental enrichments. But ya, for me mental enrichment was the most fun thing to do. It also pushed me to pursue many of my creative interests. 

The most fun part of being with her was her birthday. Now she was not at all a mushy kind of person. She was very practical and straightforward person. But her birthday fell on 14th of February. You see the irony here. We thought the person who is miles away form all these lovey dovey things gets born on a day of love. And just to irk her I would wish her 'Happy Valentine's Day' first thing on the morning of 14th February, instead of wishing her 'Happy Birthday'. The expression on her face after that was priceless - just like a deer caught in front of a headlight. This became a ritual for me even after she left the organization, I left the country, she got married and I moved back to Pune. I had visited her once while in Pune, when she was about to move away to another city with her husband. Somehow after that we lost connect, as there was a lot happening at my end and her end as well. But still I so fondly remember her on each Valentine's day. Its like I cannot start this day without wishing her in my mind. I also wish that we connect back soon again someday.

Now coming back to this day - the day of love. During the college days this day used to be perceived as something special. I used to see my room mate getting loads of Valentine's day gifts from her then boyfriend who used to stay in another state. I envied her, not because she had a boyfriend, but because of the cutesy gifts she would receive. I just wished that someone would also give me some nice, cute and pink gifts someday! The die-hard romantic soul in me would overpower the logical intellectual inside. 

Valentine's day back then would mean the city being painted in red balloons, the Archie's gallery in our neighborhood giving discounts on everything, restaurants playing romantic numbers and young couples bunking classes and heading off to some amusement parks or gardens. Our college was very much like a school, so I never saw anyone in my class buking college for going on a date, but we heard about it from the other girls in our hostel. Couple giving gifts (even teddy's), dressing up on the day and hanging out together seemed like a perfect definition of love. 

Now with all these years behind me, a special day for love seems futile. If there is one thing I have realized that is a person (guy or girl) who makes you special in even small things in day to day life - like complimenting on your cooking or helping you in household chores, hearing you out on your lowest days, supporting you in achieving your dreams, or just spending time with you even amidst their busy schedules is probably what love looks like. Love is not what you put on your Instagram photos or your Facebook wall, its the one that you cant specifically pin point but its always surrounding you and cushioning you against all the hard times. You cannot take a photo of it, you can just feel it. 

For me food is also an expression of love. When I cook for my loved ones, I feel happy from within. I wanted to make strawberry scones this weekend with the beautiful strawberries I had bought a few days back. The scones are possibly the easiest things you can bake. Scones got their start as a Scottish quick bread. Originally made with oats and griddle-baked, today’s version is more often made with flour and baked in the oven. As for the origin of the word “Skone”, some say it comes from the Dutch word ‘schoonbrot’, which means beautiful bread, while others argue it comes from Stone of Destiny, where the Kings of Scotland were crowned. According to Webster’s Dictionary, scones originated in Scotland in the early 1500s.

Scones became popular and an essential part of the fashionable ritual of taking tea in England when Anna, the Duchess of Bedford (1788 – 1861), one late afternoon, ordered the servants to bring tea and some sweet breads, which included scones. She was so delighted by this, that she ordered it every afternoon and what now has become an English tradition is the “Afternoon Tea Time” (precisely at 4:00 p.m.). They are still served daily with the traditional clotted cream topping in Britain.

So lets get started with these super easy strawberry scones. And don't forget to also make the delicious glaze mentioned in this recipe. It adds the right amount of zing to the taste.

Wet Ingredients:

• Half & Half  ( 1 part cream + 1 part milk) - 1/2 cup
• Vanilla Essence - 4-5 drops
• Egg - 2
• Milk (for brushing) - 2 tbsp

Ingredients for Glaze

• Icing Sugar - 1 cup
• Half & Half Milk - 2 tbsp
• Vanilla Essence- 3-4 drops

Equipment:

• Baking Tray
• Mixing Bowl
• Whisk
• Strainer
• Oven

Recipe Video:

Procedure: 

1. Line a baking tray with baking sheet. 

2. Add all the wet ingredients in a bowl ( Half & half, eggs, vanilla). Whisk them together and keep aside.

3. Now in a large mixing bowl sift the flour. Add the sugar, salt, baking powder and whisk them uniformly to incorporate the baking powder evenly.

4. Now add cold butter into the dry ingredients. 

Tip: I had cut the butter into small cubes and kept them in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before using them in the recipe. Super chilled butter will help the scones rise better and become fluffy. 

5. Work the butter into the flour mixture with your hands until it resembles coarse crumbs. You can also use a food processor for the same. 

6. Once the butter is fully incorporated, add the chopped strawberries and gently fold in. Use your hands without putting too much pressure, mix everything together.

7. Now add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until it starts forming a dough. The dough will be a little sticky, don't worry - just try to bring everything together.

8. Now transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface.  Form a ball first and then flatten it into a disc of about 1 inch height and 8 inch width. 

9. Using a sharp knife cut the disc into 6 or 8 equal slices. 

10. Now transfer these slices to the parchment-lined baking tray. Using a pastry brush, brush the top of each scone with milk. This will ensure it having a golden top.  Sprinkle some icing sugar on top for extra crunch - this is optional. 

11. Transfer the tray to freezer for 15-30 minutes. This will help the scones raise and become flaky.

12. While the scones are getting chilled preheat your oven to 375 degree F or 190 degree C.

13. Bake the scones for about 17-20 minutes until the top starts to brown. Keep an eye on them towards the last few minutes. If they begin to brown too quickly, place a piece of aluminum foil over top to slow the browning process.

14. Remove the scones form the oven and let them cool down completely.

15. While the scones are cooling down make the glaze. In a mixing bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, half & half and vanilla essence. Drizzle this glaze over the cooled scones.

18 January 2022

We have entered a brand new year and the year didn't start quite as anticipated. It was a rather muted beginning and enough to pull many of my plans upside down. If you don't want to hear a long monolog then just scroll down to the recipe.

Often in life we feel let down by people. It maybe your husband, your partner, your family, your friends or even your colleagues. If they are someone we deeply care about then the hurt is more acute. "Why did they do this to us when we really care for them", "I wouldn't have done this to them if I was in their place" , "they are so insensitive to our feelings", "they only care about themselves" - all these are the normal questions that crop up in our minds immediately. Even if we agree to an extent we might also have contributed to the situation, still we want to blame the other person a little more. Because we expect a lot from close people. And our expectation from others become the benchmark of our happiness or sadness. If we just pause for a moment and think, so they failed to meet our expectation but was I myself able to meet my expectation? Instead of what they didn't do for me, we need to ask what did I do for myself? I let myself feel sorry, I let myself become weak and I let myself wallow in sorrow because someone else did something. Maybe because we never set expectations from ourselves at all, which kind of feels like a lack of self love. Others are not obligated to value us, but we are. Unless we see value in ourselves how can someone else see it? Though I cannot call it like a new year resolution, because I never made those but its kind of a thing I need to work on this year - setting my expectations straight for myself. I need to become a stronger individual and become valuable to myself. I need to ask myself everyday how can I meet my expectations than waiting for someone else to fill in.  Would I be able to create a better version of myself? That's a wait and watch. 

So how do I start this self expectation journey? The first thing I did was changing my skincare routine. Sounds vain? I would say otherwise. The first step all this expectation journey was making myself feel good from outside and inside. I gifted myself a bunch of paraben free, cruelty free, vegan and clean skincare products and chalked out a minimalist regimen for myself. 18 days into the year and touchwood I have kept up with the schedule so far. It is giving me results as well. And I am happy with the line of products I had chosen for myself. Let me know if anyone of you is interested to know them and I can give a list of the products I found beneficial for my sensitive skin.  Also let me tell you one nice tip that I am following, give a 5 minute massage to your face post washing it. You can use your fingertips or a massager. This helps depuffing your face, drains the lymph nodes and helps boost collagen. This thing really does wonders. The next thing was to feel good from inside as well. Now I start my day with a glass of warm water, honey and lime juice. I also have a raw garlic pod (this is still a very loathsome job for me so still not able to put into a regular habit) on an off in an empty tummy. Garlic is a very powerful little thing which boosts your immunity and helps the body in more than one ways. Just look it up on Google and you will know. I have also started eating optimal meals - doesn't mean I am not at times ordering in, but turning towards more leaner and balanced meals. Like you know instead of trying of diet fads I am sticking to food that we have eaten while growing up and never faced any health problems like obesity etc. On weekends I am trying out combinations of protein, carbs and minerals for a wholesome meal. I am not a dietician myself so just trying to eat in regulated portions while keeping the menu interesting. I am now incorporating a little more time into yoga in my morning exercise routine. Especially breathing exercises. I am also making sure the screen time is limited before sleep hours. I have pulled out all the old books from my bookshelf and reading is the last thing I do before sleeping. And the final thing I am doing for myself is letting me be more creative. I have started working on an unfinished novel, cutting down on all the hyper activities on Instagram (contests, collaborations etc.), watching travel videos and good movies to get more ideas on writing. Apart from personal there are some professional goals as well but I wouldn't bore you with them. So that's how my new year started on a nutshell. Fingers crossed to keep this going till the end of the year.

I had ended the last year on a nice note with finally being able to travel to Meghalaya with family. That blog is coming out in snail's pace but yeah it will come. So in the background of the photos you see a nice forest, thats the photobook I made and printed from Vistaprint. I had discovered this gem of a website 6-7 years ago and from then on it has become my one and only destination for getting high definition albums done for my travels. This time I was so smitten by the Meghalaya photos post edit that I went ahead an ordered an XL sized album form their website. I cant tell you how incredible the album looks. Its like a coffeebook print and all the memories just come alive the moment I turn those pages. The one in the background is from Shnongpdeng.

Now coming to the recipe for today - Motorshutir Pur or Green peas stuffing. Winters in Bengal are synonymous to nolen gur and koraishutir kochuri (Peas kachori). Fresh tender peas fill the market scene and it is hard to resist their temptation. We make a nice filling from the fresh peas, gently stuff it inside dough balls and roll it out to make stuffed flatbreads or pooris. Last year it was my mom who made amazing pea stuffed flatbreads for me, but this year the onus fell upon me if I wanted to enjoy the peas. There are several techniques for Motorshutir pur, the one that I made is a recipe followed in our family from generations.  Its an easy recipe and even beginners or bachelors can try it out. 

One might scoff at me saying who gives a separate recipe for Motorshutir pur? Where is the Kochuri part of it? But in my defense I must say that after tasting many kochuris and pea stuffings I have come to the conclusion that if you don't get the pur right, then the parathas or pooris that you make with the stuffing doesn't taste nice. So you can say technically the stuffing or the pur is the core of a good kochuri or stuffed paratha. And hence a separate post to give it its necessary respect. 

Also this pur is so versatile that you can make this into small pakoras, use it as a sandwich filling or just eat it as is ( I really do that), its simple and delicious. 

I used this filling to make peas paratha and that recipe will come in my next blog.

Meanwhile you can checkout some other Bengali snacks :

• Motorshuti diye chide bhaja
• Vegetable Chop
• Kachki macher bora
• Dim Toast | Dim Pauruti
• Macher dimer bora

Equipment:

• Pan
• Mixer grinder

Procedure: 

1.  Shell the peas. Wash and drain the water and let them air dry for sometime.

Note: This recipe is best made with winter peas when they are still tender and sweet. I got about 1 cup of shelled peas from 1/2 kg peas with shell.

2. Now take a mixer grinder jar and add the raw peas, green chili and ginger.  Blitz this to a fine paste, scraping sides and adding a little water, as needed. You might need to pulse a few times until you have a nice and smooth paste.

Tip: Many people suggest boiling the peas before making a paste, but in our home the paste is made from raw peas. The texture and taste is much better this way.

3. Add salt and blitz it one more time to mix it well.

Note: You can add the salt while cooking this mixture also, whatever you are comfortable with.

4. Now heat some refined oil in a pan. When the oil is hot temper it with whole Jeera and Hing.

5. When the spices are fragrant add the pea mixture. Add sugar and cook on medium flame stirring occasionally until the mixture dries out and gathers around the spatula in a lump. This will take about 5 minutes.

Let the mixture cool before you use this stuffing for pooris or parathas. 

Let me tell you the mixture is so delicious that at times I have it as is, as its hard to resist!

10 September

Ganpati Bappa Morya! Wishing you all a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi. May Lord Ganesha as the harbinger of happiness dispel all distress and obstacles from your lives and shower you with his blessings.

सुखकर्ता दुखहर्ता वार्ता विघ्नाची
 नूरवी पुरवी प्रेमा कृपा जयची
 सर्वांगी सुंदरा उति शेंदुराची
 कंठि झलके माला मुक्ताफलनि

 जय देव जय देवा जय मंगलमूर्ति
 दर्शनमत्रे मनकामना पूर्ति

Welcoming Bappa home is always a joy. Somehow the elephant headed god feels more like a family than a God figure. Amidst the pantheon of Indian deities, Gannu Baba is probably the only one who has an innate boyish cheekiness. You will really be hard put to find faults with a God who loves his ‘modak’ more than anything. The ever smiling God feels like the child of the household and we love spoiling him with an overdose of Modaks and all the goodies we can think of on his birthday. 

Ganapati Bappa has been a part and parcel of my life from the time I stepped into the soil of Maharashtra. He he simply omnipresent here. Be it the vehicle dashboard, office desks, temples in the nooks and corner of the streets, bollywood songs, restaurant names or in the grandeur of the iconic Dagduseth Mandir. Even in the most unexpected places you will find him in some form. That's how much he is loved in here.

When I first joined my workplace in Mumbai more than a decade and half ago, Mumbai was a unknown city for me. It was the first time I was going away from my home state. Everything seemed alien and scary at first. On top of that we had a very tight schedule during the training period. Infinite assignments, exams, long hours at the office, the local food made me feel the city of dreams was becoming a city of depression for me. I almost started feeling as if I needed to be back in my comfort zone away from all the craziness.

A month after I joined, it was the time of Ganesh Chaturthi. My company had a huge building in Mahape and they set up a big Ganpati Idol in our premise on the occasion. The office bus used to bring us to office at sharp 8.30 AM. We got out of bus and immediately used to line up before the Ganapati Idol as the aarti would start. Again before leaving office the evening aarti would happen at 8 PM sharp. The evening time felt more surreal, as the surrounding would be absolutely calm and the aarti would reverberate all around the premise creating a dolby effect. "Sukhkarta Dukhharta" - this aarti was the first one I learned during that time and while chanting the same with 100 other trainees in the same room it felt liberating. As if all the negative thoughts I was getting before vanished in that moment. I think it was those 10 days of Ganesh Chaturthi that helped me brave the hardships of the training phase in my company. After all these years, I fondly remember those evening aartis - they are embedded in my memories forever as one of the most cherished moments in Mumbai. This aarti still continues to be my favorite one. You feel so much power and positivity form inside when you chant this, even when you are alone. 

On this occasion today, I made Unniyappam for the naivedya. Unniyappam-Unniappam, is a traditional recipe and popular snack from Kerala. It is a fluffy deep-fried rice sweet fritter similar to Dutch Aebleskiver. Unni in Malayalam means small, Ney/Nei means ghee/clarified butter, and Appam means small rice cake. Unniyappam-Unniappam is also used as a ritual offering, in temples in Kerala (South India). Check out the recipe below. 

• Wheat Flour - 1 cup
• Rice Flour - 1 tbsp
• Banana - 1 medium size
• Baking Soda - a pinch
• Jaggery - 3/4 cup
• Salt - a pinch
• Grated Coconut - 2 tbsp
• Cardamom Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Oil + Ghee - as required for frying

Garnish:

• Roasted sesame - 1 tsp

Equipment:

• Paniyaram Pan / appachatti
• Toothpick

Method

2. Now add the rice flour to the mixing bowl

3. Take the jaggery and break it into pieces or grate it using a grater. Add about 1/2 cup water or as required. Microwave it for about 30 seconds to one minute till the jaggery is completely melted. Strain it to remove impurities. 

Note: If you do not have microwave you can melt the jaggery in a pan over the gas as well.

4. Dry roast the grated coconut till slightly browned and fragrant.

5. Mash the banana with a fork.

6. Now add the mashed banana, melted jaggery, cardamom powder and grated coconut to the dry mix in the mixing bowl. Fold in and the batter should be of a idly or pancake consistency. Let the batter rest for 20 minutes or more.

Note: You can store the batter overnight in a fridge also at this point.

7. Now add the baking soda and salt and give it a stir.

8. Heat a Paniyaram pan and fill each cavity with about half oil + ghee mixture. When the oil is hot, add about 1 tbsp of batter into each cavity. At this point keep the gas at high heat for 1 minute. Then lower the flame to medium and cover the pan. Cook covered for another minute then turn the unniayappam while the center is still soft. This will ensure they have a full round shape. Cook for another minute till a toothpick inserted comes out clean and they have a nice brown color.

Tip: fill the cavity with batter leaving a little space at the top. Once the Unniyappam starts getting cooked it will fill the whole cavity and it will be difficult to turn if there is no space.

Note: Unniyappams store nicely in the refrigerator. You can store them for 2-3 days in the fridge.

Enjoy it hot or cold. 

15 July

I recently discovered my love for Roti Rolls. It was a weekend and I had a laundry list of things to do, including cooking, shooting, editing, updating blog, updating Instagram and all that. I usually don't keep all of that on the same day, but it was just another day when I didn't have much of a choice. I wanted to cook something really easy and simple so that I could spend most of the time shooting. I had discovered the beauty of backlights and wanted to do a little experimental shoot. On any other weekend day I would have just cooked a bowl of ramen topped it off with loads of spring onion, a sunny side egg and be at peace. But this time I had to shoot as well. Looking at my pantry an idea occurred to me. There was some leftover Roti from the night before. And I also had some bite sized chicken pieces in the refrigerator. A quick wrap was the answer to question. 

I am from that part of the country where Rolls have almost got an iconic status - the city of joy, Kolkata. We practically ate rolls for any random excuse at least once a week back in the days. Especially when we went to coaching class, to endure the next couple of hours of derivatives and  thermodynamics we needed a happy tummy. There was a Roll and Chop er dokan aka a shop which sold Rolls and cutlets near to our coaching class. No matter how resolute we were of not having street side food, the aroma of the spices and the fried egg on a hot griddle drove us back to the shop every day. We were like giddy teenagers in love, the only difference was this love was not for any human but for those yummy rolls and chops which the shop owner would keep making with extreme dexterity. 

Rolls would always be made with parathas topped with a generous layer of omelette and then came all the wonderful filling ingredients which you wanted. Something like a roadside version of the modern Subway, you could pick and choose what you wanted the filling to be. Though it tasted just heavenly, it was not the most healthy of things. Parathas were oily and so were the chicken fillings. But that is when you shut your guilty feeling and just give in to temptations of good food.

But when you make the same roll at home, you get utterly cautious of how much oil goes into it. Though homemade rolls are healthy but still its something fried. So the calorie conscious folks would still be wary of it. That's when this random discovery made me very happy. It was easy to make (no frying parathas), it was resourceful (you could utilize leftover rotis) and it was healthy (no oil in rotis). I ended up making a marinade with the Mandi masala I had and it gave a lovely Lebanese flavor notes to the wrap. The masala is super easy to make and preserve. 

You can purchase frozen or refrigerated Rotis at Indian grocery stores, or you can make them yourselves at home. Alternatively you can serve this with naan, pita breads or a Western style flatbread or even store bought tortillas. 

Checkout some interesting recipes on my blog:

• Chicken Quiche
• Lebanese Toum - Garlic Sauce

Equipment:

• Skillet/ Tawa
• Skewers

Method:

1. Start by preparing the spice mix. Dry roast coriander, black peppercorn, cumin, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon sticks for about 1 to 2 mins flipping occasionally. Add all the roasted spices in a mixer grinder and add salt, ginger powder, red chilli, turmeric, and nutmeg ( coarsely ground) to it. Pulse it till you get a fine powdered spice mix. It will smell divine at this point! 

Note: This is actually known as Mandi spice mix. Check out my Mandi Chicken Rice Recipe

2. Now to prepare the marination mix, take about 1 tsp of the spice mix prepared above and to it add half a lemon juice and cooking oil. Mix well to prepare a paste.

3. Apply the paste on the cleaned chicken pieces and let it sit for about 1 to 2 hours. The longer the better.

4. Now slice the onions and chop the green chilies and fresh coriander leaves. In a bowl add all the three and add the juice of half a lemon. Add salt for taste and give it a good mix. Let it rest.

5. Now put the marinated pieces of the chicken in skewers. Add some slices of onions as well in between the chicken. Heat a tawa and add 2 tsp oil, let it get heated. Then place the chicken skewers on the tawa in one single layer. Let it cook on medium heat. Flip over every 2-3 minutes for the chicken to cook evenly. 

6. Now for the charred effect, hold each chicken skewer over direct flame of gas, it will sizzle. Keep turning the skewers to get the desired charred edges on your chicken. 

7. In the same tawa add 1 tsp more oil and lightly fry the sliced bell peppers.

8. Now to assemble, spread some base sauce on the roti. Here I have used Honey mustard because I love the flavor it adds to the wrap. Then I added a little amount of tomato ketchup over the honey mustard. Add a layer of chopped lettuce in the middle in a straight line. Add a layer of the onion slices marinated in lemon juice. Now place the fried bell peppers and finally place the grilled chicken pieces and onions. Add some more honey mustard sauce on top if you want. Serve immediately while still hot. Enjoy!

Note: If you are using a day old chapati then thaw it and warm it before assembling the wrap. You can also fry the roti in a tsp of oil and then use for the wrap.