Skate Fish Fry

Skate fish is quite different from the regular fish we usually cook. My first time trying it was at a small Malaysian restaurant in New York City. They had a glass-window kitchen where you could watch the chefs at work, and honestly, it was love at first bite.

Mr. Parveez, on the other hand, never really took to it the way I did—but I was completely hooked. The restaurant was tiny and often crowded, which made it tricky for us to visit, especially with kids in strollers. Eventually, our trips there stopped, but my love for skate fish didn’t. I knew I had to start making it myself.

Skate fish, unlike many other types of fish, has a soft and slightly delicate texture. Depending on the kind of pan you use, it can easily stick, so you need to handle it gently. Adding too much oil doesn’t help either—it just makes the fish greasy, and let’s be honest, oily fish is never enjoyable.

The marinade for this dish is simple to make and leans toward the spicier side. If you prefer milder flavors, just reduce the amount of chili. It’s an easy, beginner-friendly recipe that’s full of flavor and guaranteed to impress anyone you serve it to.

Kolkata Chicken Roll

Chicken rolls have always been a favorite in our home. Those of you who follow my blog know how much I love wraps of all kinds — whether it’s a classic chicken roll, a burrito, or tacos. I think this love goes back to my mom. During one of her trips to Mumbai, she tasted Mutton Tikka Boti Rolls at a Parsi eatery and later recreated them at home. They were an instant hit with the entire family, and from that point on, rolls became a regular comfort food for us.

So when I came across pictures of the famous Kolkata Chicken Roll, I knew I had to try making it. The flavors sounded irresistible — bold, layered, and packed with personality. From everything I’ve read, it’s one of Kolkata’s most iconic street foods, loved for its rich taste and satisfying simplicity. Although I’ve never visited Kolkata, there’s something about its food culture that deeply attracts me. Some places just connect with you through their cuisine, even from afar.

Recipes like this are wonderfully fuss-free and incredibly practical. For those of us living far from our home country, food becomes a powerful way to stay connected to our roots. At the same time, dishes like these are perfect for kids — easy to eat, nutritious, and ideal for busy days or meals on the go.

I grew up loving my mom’s Tikka Boti Rolls. She initially made them with mutton, but later switched to chicken as well, and I adored both versions. I’ve always appreciated recipes that travel well — perfect for road trips, long drives, or those moments when hunger strikes and stopping isn’t an option. Not every journey allows for leisurely restaurant breaks, and sometimes you’re just stuck in traffic after a game or a long day. That’s when homemade rolls like these truly shine — convenient, filling, and deeply satisfying.

For this version, I marinated boneless chicken with salt, ginger-garlic paste, lemon juice, and yogurt. The spice blend includes dried fenugreek leaves, tandoori masala, red chili powder, cumin powder, and fennel powder, creating a beautifully aromatic base. The chicken can be marinated overnight for deeper flavor, but even a quick 30–45 minute marinade works well when time is short.

This recipe may not be an exact replica of the rolls you’d find on the streets of Kolkata, but after many trials and countless variations, this is the version I keep coming back to. One element I borrowed from my mom’s technique is spreading a thin layer of beaten egg onto the roti and cooking it before adding the filling. I’m not entirely sure how this differs from traditional Kolkata egg rolls, but I do know that it adds richness, texture, and a wonderful depth of flavor.

Ultimately, this recipe is a blend of influences — my mother’s cooking, flavors I’ve loved over the years, and my own experiments in the kitchen. The result is a chicken roll that feels both familiar and new, comforting yet exciting.

I hope you try it, enjoy it, and share it with your loved ones — just as my family and I do. 🌯✨

Tandoori Chicken

Tandoori Chicken is most common, easy and easily available chicken kebab. The Chicken Tandoori can be made in small pieces, Chicken legs. My Mother used to make Tandoori Chicken for almost the whole world and I mean it, the whole world. My friends who loved non vegetarian food loved her Tandoori Chicken.

Tandoori Chicken though is a fusion between Middle eastern or Mughlai Grilled chicken mixed in with Indian spices and must have been an experiment by Mughal Khansamas to incorporate and use the local chilies along side of the Afghan or Persian spices.

There is a very funny story to this too. My mother had a best friend from school, who moved to Kolkata after marriage, and one of her daughter’s fell sick and the doctor recommended Chicken soup to her. When the family traveled to Jodhpur, the daughter had already became a hardcore non veg lover, but had not ventured out with other varieties. So when they came, she requested my mother to make soup for her which my mother delightfully fulfilled. Then one fine day, my mother was making Tandoori Chicken for some guests when her friend’s daughter happened to be at our house. The fragrance of Tandoori Chicken is hard to say no to, hence she wanted to try it out. And that was it, Tandoori Chicken found itself a fan for life. And my Mother would never ever make an excuse for not cooking or going through the pain of fulfilling her special request despite her busy schedule.

Well, what I meant was that Tandoori Chicken was kind of the only Chicken kebab that my mother made and it was out of this world and loved, not just by us but even others. Now, I make huge varieties of Kebabs and Tandoori chicken also happens to be one of those, but when it comes to adding chicken to your pizza, Tandoori chicken is the best. One you don’t really need an old fashioned Tandoor to make it. It can be made in your oven or incase of boneless, it can easily be made in a pan too.

A simple marinade of Yogurt, chili powder, salt, tandoori powder, red food color, Ginger garlic paste and lemon juice is sufficient to bring out an extremely delicious kebab dish. Its one of the best and the easiest kebabs i have ever made.

Shahi Mutton Raan

Bakra Eid is one of the most important holiday for us Muslims. The month of Hajj is not just sacred, but also very special. Eid inculcates the value of sharing and sacrifice. Most Muslim families offer sacrifice on this day, which is divided into 3 parts, one part being for the less fortunate or poor, second part for relatives and friends and third part to kept for yourself. As much as I grew up with these values, I never tried to understand the reason and philosophy behind them. Now, as a mature adult I understand the deep meaning of how the religious reasons are ways of making us more caring and attentive towards our community and people.

Although, back leg of a goat would be available at your local butcher any day, but there is something about the back leg that is kept from the Qurbaani [animal sacrifice] and is usually cooked after a few days or weeks. Trust me when I say, there is something special about the meat from Eid. A taste that you never get on the regular meat from your butcher. And I cook meat leg from Eid and regular meat back leg from the Butcher too.

This recipe is pretty simple. The thing that needs most attention is the way you make slits in the back leg. The deeper the cuts, the easier it is for the spices to make their way in the meat, making it more flavorful. The main ingredient in the marination will be raw papaya. Raw papaya acts as a meat tenderizer and makes sure your meat comes out cooked well from inside and also stays soft and juicy. In case you do not have raw papaya/ green papaya available, you can also use the store bought meat tenderizer powder and use according to the instructions by the manufacturer.

I always marinate Raan with 2 separate marination. The first one is with basic Raw papaya paste, roasted Cumin Powder, Turmeric powder and salt and set it aside for an hour. The second marination includes Ginger garlic paste, Red chili powder, Tandoori masala, Anardana powder, Yogurt and Vinegar. I also add butter to this marination , but you can always add Oil if you prefer a healthier version. This marination should be kept for at least 8 – 10 hours or overnight. Cooking this on a grill is the best way to have it. I have cooked them on Gas grills and charcoal grills as well. Oven might not be as good of an option though if you do not have an outdoor grill, you can always use the oven with a with the marinated back leg on a mesh tray and a tray underneath to catch any drippings.

This dish will definitely make simple day seem a special occasion and make your dining table look extremely fancy. Enjoy!!!

Shikari Chicken Rice

This is an invention by only hearing about the dish…Yeah I know I can go nuts when it comes down to trying to make a new dish. This happens to be one that I really planned out well and craved to make it.

Like I always say, every dish has a story. This one has one too. While speaking to a close friend about different Biryanis that we get at famous and not so famous eateries in India, I was told that a popular restaurant served something that was close to Biryani, but not Biryani. That really got my interest. Giving me further details, that its mildly flavored bed of Rice served under these awesomely juicy grilled chicken. I mean who wouldn’t want to act on this description and try and make it. It’s actually not just the details of the dish, but the way it was described and the fact that it topped the list of Chicken and Rice. I had not even seen the dish, yet I was head over heels in love with the dish and felt challenged to make it.

When you are aware of a dish, you tend to study it by searching about different chefs who have made it or by trying the dish out at different restaurants or even making the dish a couple of times to achieve the desired flavor or result. But when its a dish, you have never heard of until now, tried, seen or tasted, and you crave to cook it, you are definitely a crazy chef…LOLzzz. I think I fit the bill.

So, I am not aware of the Chicken served is with bones or without, but going according to my Biryani basics, I picked Chicken with Bones and marinated the chicken with spices and Yogurt for around 2-3 hours. Though my chicken came out delicious, I still recommend that a chicken is more flavorful if marinated overnight or for at least 6-8 hours, though in today’s time and age, things happen unplanned and we have a little time before we decide what we need to cook. For all those times, marinate, cover, and place the chicken in the refrigerator. Refrigeration helps blend the flavors faster and better. Once I was ready to cook them, I took them out of the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 400F or 180C. I placed them on the grill with a tray underneath to catch the dripping. The cooking time was around 25-30 minutes, with an extra 5 minutes of high heat grill, since I wanted them to look well done. If you want, you can cook them in the oven and do the latter process in a pan, or on naked fire. Any which way will give you great outcomes.

I made a gravy as well to spike up the layers of Rice. The gravy was made very similar to Biryani Yakhni shorba. For initial whole spices, I added fennel seeds along with cinnamon, cloves, green cardamom, and cumin seeds. I further fried the onions, taking half of it out for garnishing and using them while layering the Rice. That was followed by Ginger garlic paste and spice powders. Further adding tomatoes and Yogurt, combined with green chilies, mint leaves, and coriander leaves. I also added the marination left behind after the chicken is taken out, so it gets a little flavor from the chicken as well since we aren’t cooking the chicken in the gravy.

This is a lovely recipe for a weekend Brunch or to display your cooking skills to those uninvited guests, when you don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen. It’s a pretty quick fix to traditional Biryani and modern-day Chicken over Rice. One of my self invented and the best recipes ever…Enjoy!!!

Chicken Cheesy Tikka

Chicken Tikka has always been my go to recipe whether I have to make quick kebabs for the family or friends or even if we decide late in the evening to have a barb-e-cue dinner, Chicken Tikka is always the easiest, safest and yummiest recipe to go to. The flavors can be any which way you want. The boneless chicken pieces easily absorb the flavors quickly and the result always comes out delicious, unless you are determined to mess it up, otherwise its hard to mess up the chicken marination.

This recipe is a chef’s fluke or should I say determination of make sure I make something using shredded cheese, making sure the kebabs are soft, but also making sure that the boys taste no cheese. Isn’t it funny, life as a mom who loves to cook but is restricted by the weird taste buds that won’t allow her to experiment with flavors stressing on the fact that their peculiar taste buds won’t allow them to enjoy their favorite tikka. Therefore, this recipe was a challenge, and if you are sailing in the same boat as me, this recipe is for you.

The chicken I used is boneless chicken breast and Chicken breast tends to go a little dry and cheese helps it stay moist and juicy. I love kebabs that have that crunch top and is super moist inside.