Sweet Palm fritters aka Taal-er-bora

What's Janmashtami?

Yes, it happens to be the birthday celebration of the blue skin god, Krishna, which includes a lot of pomp and pleasure. Pleasure because this day is indeed a food marathon of sorts, apparently because the ever smiling flirty deity is a foodie ( do not be fooled by the actors essaying this character on screen). What I distantly remember of the celebration taking place at my maternal uncles house is an amalgamation of aromas hitting your nostrils every now and then. Tal-er bora or palm fritters is somehow synonymous with this festival. The god surely knows how to make himself feel special, because this fritters even though easy to eat, isn't that easy to make. to know  more read on!!

Let me start by issuing a warning: This recipe is not for the faint-hearted at all. One because it does include a lot of hard work, to the extent that this can be termed as manual labor and secondly, these fritters absorb a lot of oil.  This recipe as most others, is not my invention. Rather a family one, which mom has been making painstakingly, year after year, because my father loves it to death. 

Love I have always believed entails a lot of work.

Since peeling and squeezing out the juice of the palm fruit is an art, and is a time taking task, I intend to share step by step process of the juicing of the this hairy golden fruit. 

Palm- 1 kilo

Peeling session: 

• Start with taking the crown off. start peeling from top to bottom in clockwise direction. Once all the peel, divide the fruit into 3 sections. 
• Take a clean bowl, pour 1 section at a time and 6-7 tbsp of water and start working with it with one hand. this process is to loosen up the flesh. Once the fruit has softened, take them out and place in another clean bowl. Repeat for the other two.
• Then it's time for the final juicing stage: Take a steel or bronze plate with steep sides. Pick up each softened section and start rubbing it against the edge. continue this till the fruit has yielded all its thick soupy juicy as radiant as the rising sun. the hairy husky mound will feel dry against your skin. time to discard it.
• Repeat the same for the other two hearts.
• Now that you have successfully done all of this, collect it in a bowl, keep aside. sit down and treat your self to a cup of piping hot tea. 

Batter:

• Fresh palm juice 600 gm approx
• Semolina or suji 100 gm
• Whole wheat flour or atta 225 gm
• APF or maida 100 gm
• Rice flour 180 gm
• Sugar 450 gm 
• Super ripe banana 350 gm (measured unpeeled)
• Desiccated coconut 6 tbsp

And now the easier process to make it. 

1. Start by mashing up all the bananas, so that it almost becomes a puree

2.In a big nonreactive bowl pour in the palm juice.

3. Bung in all the other components of the batter. Mix well, to avoid lumps.

4. Leave it to ferment for about an hour or so, by which time the semolina will swell up and give the batter a denser consistency.

5. Place a bottom heavy and wide pan on the fire and pour in the entire vegetable oil. Once the oil starts to warm up, with the help of 2 spoons start dropping in the batter in to the oil. Remember not to overcrowd the pan.

4. Remember to fry them on medium flame, turning them every few minutes for them to color evenly.

5. once they turn luscious golden brown, with the help of a slotted spoon, take them out of the pan and drain. 

6. Eat it hot, if you are eager. But if you are endowed with the virtue of patience, eat them the next day, they taste way better. Trust me on that!

And that's it!!

While I can never disagree to the hard labor this encompasses, but the pleasure for the food lovers gain from it is huge, you get to see it in their eyes. That surely is a reward. In recent times, owing to the grueling lifestyle, this homemade delicacy is now a staple in sweet shops across the state, which is a sad thing!! But with little perseverance planning and patience we can bring it back to our kitchen. After all, tradition and humans live on, not only through memories, but also in a  plate of food. However there are a couple of pointers that might be of help!!

1. Never store the batter in your fridge for more than 12 hours. There are high chances of it turning sour and then going bad.

.2. Desiccated coconut is advisable as it doesn't alter the consistency of the batter, rather add is binding. However, in teh absence of it, use the freshly scraped ones. while i am sure it will add to the taste, use your experience about how to manage the batter.

3. Use regular granulated sugar for this. In case if superfine caster sugar or breakfast sugar is your thins, then you might have to play around with the quantity.

4. Plz do not even attempt to shallow fry them. We do not such kind of kitchen disasters to bring down our morale.

And now that I have happily whole heartedly revealed all the do's and dont's of this recipe as you would find in a regular middle class Bengali household, do not shy away from trying this one at least once. In no time you will be a convert.

Eagerly awaiting your response and love on this post. Because this one post talks about my childhood, it's aromas, the grey hairs and wrinkles of my grannies face and a little bit of the kitchen tradition that the mother still carries with her.

Take care. Be safe. Amidst all, keep smiling!!