Did you know that in Bangladesh we have our own Bengali calender (বঙ্গাব্দ, ‘Baṅgābda)? History says that the Bengali calender was created in 7th century during King Shashanka. Primarily Bengali Calender was used mostly by the astronomers and farmers to foretell and calculate the agricultural season. Even though Bengali calendar is not widely used at present, but still it holds a part of history that shapes today’s Bengali culture and food extensively.

According to the Bengali calender, now its the month of Taal (Asian Palm or Borassus flabellifer). The month is called Bhadra (ভাদ্র) and it is so hot and humid that we say Taal Paka Gorom (তাল পাকা গরম), which means that the weather is so hot that it will even mature and ripen the Taal. Like this we Bengalis have many idioms connected with this fruit and even rhymes and stories.

So, what is this taal? It’s huge South Asian fruit, as huge as a human head and mostly popular as unripe. But in Bangladesh we eat this fruit both ways – the unripe seeds and the soft juicy palp of the mature fruit. Little bit more about Taal – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borassus_flabellifer) and how it is in every part of Bangladesh it is entitled http://weloveourbangladesh.blogspot.com/2011/06/asian-palmyra-palmasian-palm-fruit.html and https://www.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/district/afm9bgue5f.

So todays recipe will be about mature Taal pulp. I am going to make two recipes from this Taal pulp, this one will be sweet fritters or taal er bora pitha. You are gonna need the typical ingredients like flour, baking powder, sugar and oil to fry. But I will use a key ingredient for this pitha is course rice flour which makes the fritter more crispy.

The whole fruit looks like big brown round canon balls which has a thick leathery skin and if you open it,there are fibrous threads surrounding three stones. The fibers contains lots of juices or pulp which needs to get extracted. I took the Elisas video to take to picture for explaining the process.

You might ask where did I get this Taal pulp. I was very lucky and surprised to find this in one of the Bangladeshi owned shop in Copenhagen. Its a tedious job to extract taal pulp from a ripe taal and I have a bitter memory of this from childhood. But in my utter surprise, I found this preextracted pulp as sweet and fresh, as much as it should be! (It has to be because its a product from Bangladesh, he he). The tedious process of extracting palm juice is here.

I took half a cup of taal pulp into a bowl and mixed with sugar, until sugar gets dissolved.

Then I added plain flour, rice flour and baking powder and some salt.

I let the batter sit for a while about 15 -20minutes so that rice flour soaks in moisture and gets soften.

After 15 minutes, I heat oil in a pan and start adding the pulp in a fritters shape. If you think the batter is runny, then you can add more flour to it.

I flipped the fritters when one side is done. The raw fritter should be sizzling like in the picture.

To add more flavor, I added some coconuts to the batter. I don’t like coconut that much so I added them when half of the batter were fried.

When both sides of the fritters are golden brown, I took it from oil and put them on paper towel to soak the extra oil. How to know the fritters are done- when they stops sizzling in oil.

So this is how the crispy sweet taal fritter looks like. Its a perfect snacks for any evening or so to speak, snacks for any guest. Its a pretty easy to make if you have the palm or taal pulp extracted for you!

Recipe: Palm Sweet fritters / Taal er bora pitha

Ingredients: Palm pulp – 250g (1 cup) Sugar – 110g (or according to your taste) (1/2 cup) Rice flour – 170g (3/4 cup) Plain wheat flour – 115g (1/2 cup) Baking powder – 1/2 tsp Salt – a pinch coconut flakes – optional oil – to fry

1. Take palm pulp in a bowl and add sugar. Mix until sugar dissolves. 2. Add rice flour, wheat flour, salt and baking powder to the batter and stir in until fully incorporated. You can add coconut flakes in the fritter batter. 3. Keep the batter in rest for 15-20 minutes. 4. Heat oil in a pan and fry taking one spoonful batter for each fritter. 5. Fry until the bottom of each fritter is golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes and then flip. 6. Strain from oil when both sides of fritters is golden brown and put them over a paper towel to soak extra oil. Serve hot with tea as an evening time snacks.