Kolkata egg roll | Bengali egg roll recipe | Street food of Kolkata

Kolkata egg roll is crazily popular among Bengalis and is sold in almost every corner of Bengal in the carts by the street vendors. It is also one of the most frequently served Bengali snack recipe by the popular restaurants and hotels in Bengal. Kolkata egg roll recipe is popular because of its unique taste, texture and simple flavours which invite people to have it repeatedly. Now a days, Kolkata egg roll is also sold outside Bengal by the Bengali restaurants because of its high demand and popularity.

Bengalis are born foodies and they love to eat different ranges of food. So, Bengal is also considered as one of the paradises of street food. There are myriad chop recipes, rolls, cutlets, pakodas that are prepared in every street corners of Bengal by vendors, line hotels and restaurants.

Types of rolls in Kolkata

There are different varieties of roll recipes that are prepared in Bengal. The simplest and easiest version of it is Kolkata egg roll where only cucumber-onion salad with tomato ketchup is used as the filling for the recipe. Other than this chicken egg roll, mutton egg roll, cheese egg roll are few equally popular names of roll recipes in the city.

Whenever I talk about Kolkata egg roll, it always makes me feel nostalgic. It always reminds me my hometown and my college life. During my teenage, it was almost compulsory to have Kolkata egg roll twice in a week. After finishing my tuition classes, I always used to go to the egg roll stalls with my friends and buy one hot freshly prepared egg roll at ten rupees while returning home. Those were so fantastic days!!!

But after leaving hometown for job, I missed my friends a lot along with Bengali street food, especially Kolkata egg roll and phuchka. Though kati roll was available in few places of Bangalore but its taste and texture were completely different from the Bengali egg roll. To satisfy my craving, one day I decided to prepare Kolkata egg roll at my hostel in Bengaluru. That was my first attempt with friends to prepare Kolkata egg roll. To be honest, I was a novice and the egg roll turned out OK but not great.

But after a long time, when I came out of the country for the first time, I got to know a new concept about egg roll. One day, I had gone to an American Chinese restaurant with my husband and I got crazy after checking egg roll in the menu card. I ordered that immediately and couldn’t wait for the order to be served. But the thing which came to my table was completely different. Though it tastes good, but I felt little bit low. I was assuming to have Kolkata egg roll after a long period but couldn’t fulfil my desire.

For them, Egg roll is known as a deep fried cylindrical shaped savoury appetizer which is frequently served in American Chinese restaurants. It has the filling of coleslaw, ground pork and some spices with deep fried wheat flour wrapping.

The whole incident reminded me of all the golden memories and triggered my urge to have my very dear Kolkata egg roll. Then I got determined to prepare Kolkata egg roll recipe at home once again. By this time, I was an expert married cook and looked forward to imitating the same taste as I held in my memories.

Next day evening, I had prepared the tasty divine and my husband just loved the preparation and said “Now I don’t need to wait to go to hometown to have these delicious egg rolls. I can have them any time at home in foreign land”. I was so overwhelmed with the compliment. Now Kolkata egg roll has become one of our common evening snacks preparation and sometimes lazy dinner as well.

Kolkata egg roll recipe is simple and easy to make. It requires very basic and easily available ingredients to get prepared. The best part of the recipe is that after preparing the paratha it takes few minutes to accumulate all the elements to prepare the roll. It could be a perfect snack recipe for small family get togethers.

Kolkata egg roll recipe with step by step photos and instructions have been provided in the ‘Instruction’ section of the recipe. If you follow each step of my recipe precisely then I hope that it can remind you of the taste of street food of Kolkata.

What types of paratha to be used for egg roll?

Normally, typical Kolkata egg roll recipe is prepared with all-purpose flour laccha paratha. But plain paratha can also be used for the recipe as well. The taste will remain same, but the texture of the egg roll will slightly differ.

You can even use whole wheat flour for the wrap to make the recipe healthy but the taste it would surely change.

Tips to prepare egg roll

How to make egg roll?

To prepare the Kolkata egg roll, first prepare a soft dough of paratha with all-purpose flour. For the dough, add measured amount of all-purpose flour, oil, salt, sugar, water and mix it to a soft dough. Then cover the dough with a wet kitchen towel and allow it to rest for half an hour.

On the other hand, for the filling cut the onion into thin slices and add lemon juice into it. Mix it thoroughly with hand and separate the layers of onion as well. This step helps to reduce the pungent taste of onion which compliments the taste of Kolkata egg roll recipe.

Then cut the cucumbers into thin strips and finely chop green chillies and keep them aside.

After 30 minutes, come back with the dough and knead it for few seconds. Make a cylindrical shape of it and divide them equally to prepare flat dough balls to prepare parathas. Shape them with the help of hands and cover the remaining flat dough balls with wet cloth while rolling each of the dough balls to prepare paratha.

Take a dough ball on rolling board and roll it to a thin paratha with a rolling pin. Then starting from the edge of paratha, make small pleats by folding the thin paratha. Then swirl the long thick folded paratha to a round disk like pinwheel pizza. Repeat the same process with the remaining flat dough balls. Cover them with wet cloth and allow the disks to rest for another 15 minutes.

Put a heavy bottom pan on flame to fry the paratha and then roll each disk to thin round paratha at a time. Add oil into the pan and cook the parathas from both the sides over medium flame. Press the edges of the paratha for extra crisp but don’t over fry the paratha or else it will become hard. Fry them till brown spots occur on both the sides.

During the time of preparing Kolkata egg roll, you need to be very quick. While frying the paratha break an egg into a bowl and whisk it with a pinch of salt. After the paratha is properly fired, add some more oil into the pan and pour the whisked egg mixture over the paratha. Spread the mixture with a spoon and flip the paratha. Cook it on medium flame for a minute until the egg gets fried.

Then place the egg paratha on a plate facing the egg side on the top. Add onion, cucumber, green chillies on one side of the paratha with a gentle gap for wrapping. Squeeze some extra lemon juice over the salad, add a dollop of ketchup, sprinkle some chaat masala and rock salt over the top. Then wrap the paratha gently but tightly. Wrap the lower half of the wrap with a piece of paper and tuck the extra paper at the bottom. Repeat the whole process with the remaining disks to prepare the egg rolls.

Ingredients:

• 1½ cup All-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon Sugar
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• 1 tablespoon Oil
• 100-110 ml warm water

• 5 Eggs
• 1 large red Onion, thin sliced
• 1 medium Cucumber, julienne cut
• 2-3 green Chillies, thin sliced
• 1 Lemon
• 5 tablespoons Tomato Ketchup
• 1 ½ teaspoons Chaat masala (2 pinches for each Egg roll)
• 1 teaspoon black Salt (1 big pinch for each Egg roll)
• 5 pinches of Salt (1 pinch to mix with each egg)
• Oil for cooking

1. Measure 1 and ½ cups of all-purpose flour for the dough and add it in a large mixing bowl.
   

2. Add ½ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar into the bowl and mix all the dry ingredients nicely with the help of a spoon.
   

3. Add 1 tablespoon oil into the mixing bowl.
   

4. Mix the oil nicely and evenly with the help of your hand.
   

5. Add the required amount of warm water in small portions slowly into the mixture and mix it nicely to make a soft dough. For me, it took exactly 110 ml of water.
   

6. Apply ½ teaspoon of oil over the dough and cover it with a wet kitchen towel or muslin cloth and let it rest for half an hour.
   

7. On the other hand, cut the onions into thin slices and add ½ of a Lemon juice into it. Mix the juice nicely with hand and separate the layers of onions. Keep it aside.
   

8. Cut the cucumbers into julienne and slice the green chillies and keep them aside.
   

9. After 30 minutes, knead the dough again and divide it into 5 equal portions. Make 5 flat round dough balls for the paratha.
   

10. Take one ball on a rolling board to make paratha but make sure to cover rest of the dough balls with wet cloth.
11. Roll the ball to a thin paratha with the help of a rolling pin. Don’t need to bother about the shape for this time.
    

12. Start from the edge of the thin paratha to make small pleats by folding repeatedly. Then swirl the long thick folded paratha to a round disk like pinwheel pizza.
    

13. Repeat the same process with the remaining flat dough balls. Cover them with wet cloth and allow the disks to rest for another 15 minutes.
    

14. Take one swirl disk to roll lachha paratha and cover rest of the dough disks.
15. Put a heavy bottom pan on medium flame and then roll the disk to a thin paratha. No need to apply oil or flour to roll the paratha.
    

    Note: For Kolkata egg roll, you don’t need to apply too much oil for the paratha like traditional lachha paratha. The texture of paratha of a perfect Kolkata egg roll is in between plain paratha and lachha paratha.
    

16. Drizzle 1 teaspoon of oil into the pan and place the rolled paratha on it. Pour 1 more teaspoon of oil over the paratha and spread it.
    

17. Cook the paratha over medium flame for 1-2 minutes. Cook it till golden brown spots occur. Press the edges of the paratha for extra crisp. Flip the paratha and cook it again for 1-2 minutes.
    

18. In a bowl, break an egg and add a pinch of salt into it. Whisk the mixture nicely and pour it over the paratha. Spread the mixture with a spoon.
    

19. Add 1 teaspoon oil on the edges of the paratha and flip it quickly but carefully.
    

20. Cook it over medium flame for another minute until the egg gets fried. Add more oil during the time of frying egg if required.
    

21. Transfer the paratha on a flat surface facing the egg side on the top.
    

22. Add sliced onion (Step 7) on one side of the paratha but leave a gap for wrapping the paratha.
    

23. Add cucumber and green chillies for the filling of the egg roll.
    

24. Squeeze some drops of lemon juice over the salad.
    

25. Add 1 tablespoon of tomato ketchup over the salad like a thick line.
    

26. Sprinkle 2 pinches of chaat masala and a pinch of black salt over the salad.
    

27. Roll the egg paratha carefully but tightly.
    

28. Wrap the lower half of the wrap with a piece of paper and tuck the extra paper at the bottom.
    

    

29. Repeat the whole process with the remaining disks to prepare the Kolkata egg roll and serve immediately.

Keywords:
kolkata egg roll, kolkata egg roll recipe, bengali egg roll, bengali egg roll recipe, kolkata style egg roll, indian egg roll, indian egg roll recipe step by step, indian egg roll recipe, kolkata egg chicken roll recipe, kolkata egg kathi roll recipe, how to make egg roll, how to make egg rolls, how to make egg roll at home, how to make kolkata egg roll, kolkata street food, street food of kolkata, kolkata famous street food, kolkata street food recipe, bengali street food, Indian street food, Bengali snack recipe, Indian snack recipe, durga puja food