When the spouse cooks dinner: Simple Egg Kathi rolls

It’s a rather sad fact but rarely does it happen in my house that the Spouse stands up and says “I’ll make dinner tonight – Egg Kathi Rolls”. When that happened recently, my response was a nonchalant, “Cool, then I’ll take pictures and write a post about it!”. I tried to rein in my inner all controlling cook and just played along. And here I am!

When it comes to cooking eggs, I have always prided myself as being an expert. But that was before I started cooking for people other than my dad and my brother who have always been suspiciously appreciative of my cooking skills. But besides them, I have heard some fair to appreciative to some very critical comments from a lot of people. (which obviously burst my bubble!)

How do you like your eggs?

My childhood friend loved omelettes and bhurjis but her parents are vegetarians and didn’t cook even eggs at home. In her I found a willing guinea pig and subjected her to various experiments over the years. Like once I made a loaded mushroom and cheese omelette when all she wanted was a simple one egg omelette. She quietly finished the omelette but had to skip the next three meals because it was way too heavy. She hesitated to come to me for omelettes for years after that. Later she supervised my every action when I cooked for her. Thankfully, such episodes did not affect our friendship.

Once at a school friend’s house, unaccompanied by adults, hungry,  we all ravaged the fridge to find eggs, cauliflower and onions and decided to make the most of what life had to offer. We made the tastiest cauliflower bhurji and we were very proud of ourselves as we were just teenagers.

Some ten years ago, first year of our Masters, Kanika had came over and I made an omelette using desi ghee (clarified butter) to which she expressed her surprise as she always used a refined cooking oil. I told her, “but omelettes are always made in desi ghee”, as if it were a universal truth. We discussed notes and did agree that the ghee lent some sweetness to the omelette but using oil makes the omelette feel less heavy.

How we decided to make Egg Kathi Rolls at home

And couple of years ago, when I first cooked an anda bhurji for the Spouse, he found them to be undercooked and probably watery. I would have called them juicy but what happened was that from there on, he volunteered to cook eggs often. So you now know how we got here. Egg Kathi Rolls!

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TL,DR: Long story short, it took me a while to understand that people like their eggs differently, just like tea. (More on tea later!) And only when I stopped being an occasional cook, did I explore different ways to cook an egg to achieve different results. But I am not going to share any specific notes on that here.

The only wisdom that you could probably take away from this post is, one, that eggs are amazingly versatile and two, when the spouse offers to cook dinner, shut up and just let them!

Now let’s get to the point.

Kathi Roll or Frankie?

Often called Kathi rolls or Frankie in India, they too, are versatile as they can be stuffed with whatever meats, satays/tikkas or sautéed veggies or both depending on your preference.

Add sauces of your choice and you have a bazar style Kathi roll.

We usually use leftover roti or parathas to make these, but this time we bought whole wheat pita bread from the supermarket.

If you want to make Pita bread on your own, Kanika has a recipe for you here.  She also has an amazing Frittata recipe on the blog.

Ingredients

• 3-4 eggs
• Whole wheat Pita bread or any other flatbread (leftover is awesome too)
• Salt to taste
• Red chilli powder
• Coriander powder
• Garam Masala powder
• A pinch of Turmeric powder
• Black pepper- freshly ground
• Butter

For the filling

• Onion- sliced, 1
• Tomato – chopped, 1 big
• Capsicum – julienned (optional), 1
• 3-4 Spring Onions – chopped
• Any other vegetable of your choice like shredded cabbage
• Salt to taste
• Pepper
• Red chilli powder
• Coriander powder
• Garam Masala powder
• a dash of Tabasco original red sauce OR Sriracha sauce(optional)
• 1tbsp tomato ketchup
• More butter!

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Work on the filling first. Put a pan on medium high heat and add some butter. Add onions and fry till translucent. Add the salt and pepper, coriander powder, red chilli powder and garam masala followed by tomatoes. Give it all a good stir.

Next goes in the green onion, green chilli and shredded cabbage. Add the Tobasco sauce and tomato ketchup and stir fry for 4-5 minutes. Once done take out the veggies and keep aside.

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Break the eggs in a bowl and add the spices. Beat the eggs and put the same pan on medium high heat and add some butter.

Once it melts, add a portion of the eggs in the pan so that it covers the entire pan.

Note: We made 2-3 rolls so used more eggs. You could also use 1 beaten egg per roll depending on how thick you want the egg layer to be. Because we used pita bread, the rolls came out to be quite thick. In hindsight, I would have used just two eggs for 3 rolls. But I wasn’t cooking, was I?

Cook for a minute undisturbed and then place pita bread over the egg layer. Pat with a spatula till the egg solidifies and then flip carefully.

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Cook the other side till it is nicely toasted and then take off the heat and place on a plate. Add the filling and sauces of your choice and roll.

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If it is too big, you can cut the roll or enjoy it as it is!

Pro tip: Follow by encouraging Spouse to cook more often by offering compliments!

Enjoy these Egg Kathi Rolls with your choice of filling.