Bengali Kolai Dal er Bori Recipe
Dal er Bori or বড়ি is a unique way of preserving lentils by making sun-dried dumplings out of them. Bengali dal er bori recipe is mostly made of kolai dal or urad dal, which is also known as white lentils. Soaked dal is coarsely ground and left to ferment before laying it out in the sun in the form of small dumplings spread over a cloth or mat.
Servings 100 gms
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- Electric Hand Beater
- Mixer Grinder
- Plastic Sheet
Ingredients
- ½ cup Urad Dal or Kolai Dal
- ½ tsp Nigella Seeds or Kalo Jeere
- ½ tsp Hing
Instructions
- To begin with, it is soaked overnight to make them tender.
- The next morning after discarding the soaking liquid and washing it a couple of times, it is coarsely ground into a paste. Now, this has to be left for couple more hours, preferably for the entire day to ferment and rise.
- After optimum fermentation, you will see that it has almost tripled in its quantity. And it must be releasing a sour smell and appears pale in colour. Now, it is ready to be whisked.
- Transfer the fermented dal paste to a mixing bowl and add a teaspoon of Kalo Jeere (Kalonji/Nigella Seeds) and Hing. Now whisk the lentil paste vigorously till it fluffs up and becomes pristine white in colour. To make this easy, I would suggest you use an Electric Hand Beater.
- After whisking it should look like the batter shown in image 4. Now, this Bengali bori recipe is ready to be laid out in the sun in the form of small dumplings to allow it to dry.
- Once they dry up, you will see the edges peeling away from the sheet below. To make sure that the dal er bori has dried out completely inside out, we laid them out again the next day on a plate, only this time turning them over so that the base and the inside of the boris get some sunshine.
- Once they are completely dry, store them in an air-tight container in a cool and dark place.