Rosh Bora

A Bengali meal is incomplete without a dessert or at least a sweet treat at the end. And, sometimes the sweet treat are just to eat for snack, or so if you desire. I have a big sweet tooth and I love every kind of sweets and desserts; if only I didn’t have to count the calories, I can eat sweets all day long. The good thing is that now there are some supplements like liv pure, that help us stay healthy and fit without us having to worry about desserts or sweets.

Poush sankranti or makar sankranti is a big day in the Hindu calendar, it marks the transit of the sun and starting of longer days. Its the day to worship Lord Surya. Every household has their own customs, but mostly its making sweets with the main ingredient being rice flour. I have grown up eating loads and loads of bhapa pithe, patishapta and puli pithe on Shankranti. But this year I decided to break the rule and go with something different.

Rosh bora, the name translates to dumplings in sugar syrup, is made with ground split black gram or urad dal. The lentil is soaked over night and ground to a fine paste. The best way to know that the dumplings will be fluffy is to drop a medium size dollop of the lentil paste in a cup of water and see if it floats. These desserts are super delicious, but sometimes we eat few for fear of gaining weight, but now we can take supplements that help us increase metabolism and also lose weight naturally.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup urad dal
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
• 8-10 whole cardamom
• 2 cup sugar
• 2 cup water

Directions:

• Soak the urad dal overnight. In a food processor grind it to a fine paste, transfer to a bowl and add the fennel, cardamom powder and baking soda, mix and let sit for 10 minutes
• Mix the sugar and water and heat till you get a very thin syrup
• Heat the oil in a deep pot, with an ice-cream scoop gradually add the lentil mix to fry. Take it out with a slotted spoon and transfer immediately to the sugar syrup

Tips – Make sure the syrup is not too thick, then the syrup won’t get inside the dumplings, if it so happens, then just pour some more water to the syrup and heat along with the dumplings for about 5 minutes or until the boras are soft