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 today’s 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. To last, I added the oil and incorporated thoroughly.

I brushed oil on the cake molds before putting the batter.

I also made some false attempt to make cone shaped cake like the traditional one, well, let’s see how those turns out.

Now it comes to the point of baking the cake. Traditionally this cakes are steamed so I tried to recreate the method by boiling water on a big pot and carefully setting a metal dish rack on the bottom. Then I carefully put the molds filled with cake batter. I had to carefully put the hand-made cones shaped molds so that the batter don’t fall off. Then I covered the pot with lid and baked the cakes for 10 minutes, setting the temperature in low.

Ater 10 minutes I checked the cake with a toothpick. Clearly it wasn’t ready so I baked them until the toothpick came out clean.

When the cakes are fully done, let them cool down a bit and flip them out from the cake molds. The cone shaped cake doesn’t look so great, but they taste about the same. I am just happy that I tried it. Traditionally the cone shaped are done with jackfruit leaves and I promise they look way too delicious and pretty! 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 – 1/4 cup

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 cake batter. 3. Smear oil on cake mold. Make some cone with aluminum paper and smear oil on that too. 4. Heat water in a deep pot and put a rack. Put the cake molds on the rack carefully. Cover the pot with lid. 5. Bake the cakes for 10 minutes. Then stick a toothpick in the cakes, if it does not come out clean,then bake for another 10 minutes. Serve with tea as an evening time snacks.