Taler Bora was the last thing I asked my mother on the day before Pasta’s Birth in 2013!
I still remember I was nagging for having Taler Bora on that day and finally Baba and Mehebub went to C R Park and came back with a Sugar Palm a.k.a Tal which cost them 150 bucks👿! My Mom prepared Taler Bora on that day and I went for the child delivery on the next day with real peace of mind!
My love for Taler bora is until the level of madness!
The day before I saw Tal in a nearby Fruit shop while returning from office and just couldn’t resist myself from buying it and it cost me 50 bucks for two big sized Tal in Kolkata!😎 I learned the process of making Taler Bora from my mother and this recipe actually belongs to my Dida. However, Taler Bora is a popular Bengali sweet Fritter and almost every family follow the same recipe with little variation. Few people prefer to add Banana in the fritter though, I don’t use it and for the sweetness. I prefer to follow the traditional way of adding Sugar Cane Jaggery a.k.a. Akher Gur instead of normal Sugar for the unique taste and Aroma. Taler Bora is prepared on Janmashtami as the main Prasad in West Bengal.
Tale Bora is not an easy thing to make and is a traditional Bengali delicacy. After two unsuccessful attempts I finally able to make Taler Bora last year. While making it again this time, I decided to record the process on my blog to help my readers. To make the process a bit easier I am sharing a step by step pictorial to make Taler Bora. Tal is known as Nungu in Tamil and in English, it is known as Sugar Palm.
it is also popular as Asian Palmyra palm or Toddy palm or Cambodian palm. Taler Bora is prepared from the thick Juice of Ripe Sugar Palm after adding Wheat Flour, Jaggery, and grated Coconut along with some other basic ingredients. I have used 2 Big sizes Tal and prepared around 100 pieces of Fritters. However, for the ease of the readers, I am sharing the recipe for making around 50 fritters from 1 Big sized Tal.
- Ripe Tal/ Sugar Palm: 1
- Sugar Cane Jaggery / Akher Gur: 250g (in absence of Jaggery equal amount of Sugar can be used)
- Coconut: 1 (medium size)
- Whole Wheat Flour/ Atta: 2 Cup (300g)
- Semolina/ Sooji: ½ Cup (75g)
- Rice Flour/ Chal er Atta: ½ Cup (75g)
- Nigella Seed/ Kalojite/ Kalonji: Tsp.
- Refined Vegetable Oil: For Deep Frying
- Grate the Coconut and keep that aside.
- Wash the Tal thoroughly and remove the crown of the fruit by pressing inwards and remove the outer black skin from the Fruit.
- Now separate the fibrous Kernels (seeds) by pressing softly. Mostly One Big sized Tal has two or three Kernel inside.
- Take some water in a bowl to sprinkle over the kernels; you may need it while separating the Juice from the kernel of Tal.
- Grate the fibrous kernels one by one and you will get the juice separated from the fiber (as shown in the picture).
- If required sprinkle some water on the kernel while extracting the juice.
- Following the same process extract juice from the remaining kernels and Keep the bowl containing the Juice aside.
- Making of the Batter and Frying Sugar Palm Fritters (Taler Bora):
- Take the Juice extracted from Ripe Tal in a wok and start cooking the Juice on the medium flame for around 5-7 minutes or until the Juice changes the color a bit and thickened to the consistency of condensed milk.
- Switch the flame off and wait to leave it for around 5 minutes to allow the Juice cool down a bit.
- Now add Wheat Flour and mix vigorously and then mix Semolina, Rice Flour, and Nigella Seed one by one and mix thoroughly.
- Add Grated Coconut and again give the mixture a good stir.
- Finally, add Sugar Cane Jaggery (semi liquid in texture) to the mixture and mix properly.
- The batter is now ready for frying.
- Keep a small cup of Wheat Flour handy in case you found the batter runny while making the fritters. You can add extra flour to make the batter a bit thick.
- Heat sufficient Oil in a Deep bottom Pan for deep frying the fritters.
- Using your hand or a spoon and pour 1 Tbsp. full batter in the oil to make Taler Bora.
- Fry around 10-15 Taler Bora at one go depending on the size of the wok.
- In medium flame fry, Taler Bora for around 5 minutes or until the fritters turn deep brown in color.
- Strain Taler Bora from Oil and soak the oil using tissue paper or kitchen towel.
- I prefer to serve Taler Bora at room temperature instead of serving hot. In fact, it tastes better if served after one day of making.
Other Bengali Sweet Recipes Apart from Taler Bora from my Blog:
You can try out the Nolen Gurer Payesh, or Sondesh or Gurer Rosogolla from my blog in case you are planning to make a Bengali Sweet.
