Evening and welcome. Or morning to those of you starting your day. How is the Saturday treating you?
Here, we are making kebabs and pairing it with some nice beer: now if this is not Saturday, what is? A fan of Slurppy asked us to make kebabs this week and we couldn’t have been happier.
My grandmother hails from Burma. Daughter of a wealthy gem-merchant, granny was wedded off when she was 14. After the wedding, she accompanied my grandfather to Dacca, Bangladesh and then to Kolkata, West Bengal, India, where she breathed her last, in her own home, as she wished. On her journey from Rangoon to Kolkata, she learned many recipes – including the Burmese and Mughal cooking, from the Muslim community in Bangladesh: this kebab recipe being one of them.
It was the time of riot when she was taken to Bangladesh to live at my grandfather’s house with 12 other people inhabiting the same household. Joint family was the only thing that existed. And irrespective of troubled times, where Hindus were slaying Muslims and Muslims were beheading Hindus, and either oblivious or ignoring the ridiculousness of it all, somewhere behind the bloody streets, a unique friendship was brewing. I do not remember the name of the girl she used to mention in her old days but I remember her words: “The aroma from their kitchen was so tempting that I had to cross the boundaries and ask the lady what they were cooking”, and she continued, “we soon became friends – {Aleya or Aliya} and I. She taught me how to make Biryani, Kebabs and mutton”. Curious, I asked her if the riot affected their friendship? She said,”It was born in the troubled times. What else can end it?”
Sorry for digressing but it stirs me – the story and the value of human relationship. If only, everyone felt like them, this world would have been a much better place to live in.
This recipe is dedicated to my grandmother and the Slurrpy reader called Sapna, who asked for it. Hear, hear!
Chicken Kebab
Time taken: 15 min
Taste-o-meter: Spicy
Ingredients:
- Boneless chicken cubes: 1/2 kg
- Curd: 100 g
- Ginger-garlic paste: 2 tsp
- Garam masala: 3 tsp
- Lemon juice: 2 tsp
- Red chilli powder: 1 tsp
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
- In a bowl, marinate chicken with all the above ingredients and keep overnight.
- Put chicken in skewers and cook in a tandoor, a grill or even on the open flame of a gas.
- Rotate frequently, if doing on a gas oven, till each side is charred.
- Serve with lime wedges, sliced onions and tomatoes.
If you are cooking kebabs tonight, come and let us know!