Bori is one of the most traditional and oldest food items in the history of Bangladesh. It is what’s called – tofu to our culture, being produced, preserved and eaten for hundreds of years as a substitute of meat. Bori is typically made of pulses – red lentils, Black gram or split peas with sometimes addition of ash gourd. Bori only made of lentils are called Daal er Bori (Lentil Bori) and bori made of both lentil and ash gourd are called Kumro bori.

It is difficult to make bori in Europe because of lack of ingredients like pulses and gourds but also the timing or season. In Bangladesh, bori is made during winter time, because the soft sun and dry air makes the perfect combination to air dry the bori. You might say why can’t they made in oven in low temperature. Well, oven may help in some degree but not sure how they usually turns out with warmer settings in electric oven.

Bori usually looks like this – white or pale brown, depends on which kind of pulses are they made of.

There are thousands of ways to eat bori. Mostly it is eaten with fish curry in Bangladesh, but it is also eaten with vegetable curry, with hundreds of combination of veggies. So today I am making a very basic one, but you can add or omit any of the ingredients of your choice.

The very first step is to shallow fry the bori, as frying would enhance flavors. Since bori is made of pulses and being air dried, it has distinct taste and smell which one might not like in the curry, so frying them before adding to curry would reduce that distinct smell.

After frying and setting aside bori, add any ‘phoron’ like paach phoron or cumin or nigella seeds in the oil. I added paach phoron today. Then I added sliced onion and little bit of garlic paste.

When onions are cooked and looked golden brown, I added the hard veggies like potatoes at first. I cut the potatoes in 1 inches cubes so that they stays in texture but also get cooked. I also added turmeric, cumin and coriander powder so the potatoes get nicely colored.

This is a very strange sweet potato!

I then added cubed sweet potatoes. You can also use turnip, beet root, carrots or radish. These are all hard veggies so you need to cook them first.

Meanwhile potatoes are getting slightly charred, I am shallow frying cauliflowers and aubergine and setting them aside. This step is not important but it sure enhances a lots of flavor.

When potatoes look slightly roasted, I added some water and salt to cook the hard veggies.

After 5 mins of cooking the hard veggies in high temp, I added cauliflower and aubergines and stirred to combine them well with other ingredients.

Now its time to add salt and water to cook down the veggies. At this point I would add the fried bori and simmer the veggies in low heat so they get cooked evenly. I added more water than I add normally in veggie curry because the fried bori absorb a lot of water.

It took almost 10-12 minutes to fully cook the veggies. As you can see in the pics that sauce looks thick and veggies looks cooked. You can stop cooking if you want more the curry more saucy. But I like it more dense so I will cook them until it get to my preference.

Now the consistency looks more to my preference, nicely cooked potatoes but most importantly, bori and other veggies like cauliflowers have perfect textured and not mushed. It is a great consistency to eat them with ruti or rice. To finish, I added greed coriander leaves or cilantro on top.

So try cooking this and enjoy with ruti or rice!

Recipe: 5-6 Serving Prepping time: 20 min, Cooking time: 30 min

Ingredients: Vegetables Half of a big head of Cauliflower 2-3 medium Potatoes 1 big sweet potatoes 1 aubergine 100g Daal er bori Spice and Condiments 100ml Vegetable Oil 1tsp Paach Phoron 1 onion 1 bay leaf 2-3 Green Chili 1-2 dry red chili 3tbs fine Salt 1tsp Turmeric powder 1tsp Coriander powder 1tsp Cumin powder 1tsp Garlic paste or grated garlic Fresh Coriander leaves to taste

Instruction 1. Wash cauliflower and pat them dry. Cut into medium florets. Cut hard veggies like potatoes in cubes. Also cut aubergine in cubes. 2. Shallow fry bori and set them aside. Shallow fry cauliflower until they are golden. Set them aside. Same way, fry aubergine. 3. In a big pan, pan, add paach phoron, dry chili and bay leaves. When they starts popping, add onion slice and garlic paste. 4. Add potatoes and all dry spices, coat them well with spices and cook for about 2 minutes. Also add sweet potatoes. When they get slightly roasted, add 50ml water to cook them. 5. When potatoes are cooked, add cauliflower, aubergine, green chili and Bori. Add 100ml or just enough water to cover the veggies. Cook for 10-15 minutes with lid on low-medium heat and check them once in a while but do not stir them, as cauliflowers break very easily. Check salt and add more if needed. 7. When the curry gravy is at your desired consistency, turn off heat and serve in bowl! Optionally add fresh coriander leaves as garnish! Serve with rice, flat bread, naan bread or toast!