Happy Makar Sankranti to all my readers.

Winter is here in its fullest. It is the time of the year to celebrate the holy occasion of Makar Sankranti and Poush Parbon. The signature dishes during this harvest festival are mainly prepared with rice, date palm jaggery and coconut. However today I am here with a different recipe, named Rash Bora, which is also common in Bengali households during this time. Although the ‘Rash’ or syrup is usually made with date palm jaggery (Khejurer gur/Notun gur), here I have used sugar. ‘Boras’ or vadas are nothing but the urad dal fritters.

If you have not yet decided what to make in this Poush Parbon, you can go for this easy and simple recipe 🙂

Earlier posts about Makar Sankranti Recipes :

• Sedhyo Pithe, Dudh Puli, Patishapta
• Mung daler bhaja puli

Ingredients for 25-30 pieces :

1. Urad dal/lentils (Kalai/Biulir dal) – ½ cup
2. Fennel seeds/ Saunf – 1 teaspoon
3. Salt to taste (optional)
4. Sugar – 1 cup
5. Water – 2 cups
6. Green Cardamom – 2-3 pods
7. Vegetable Oil for for deep frying

Procedure :

Wash and soak the lentils in water overnight (or at least 4-5 hours).

Take out the additional water from the soaked lentils and reserve for later use. Make a smooth paste with the lentils in a blender. Add 1/3 cup of reserved water while grinding the lentils. Transfer the lentil paste in bowl.

Now add salt and fennel seeds to the paste and beat the paste with hand until it turns fluffy.

Heat oil in a kadai over medium flame to fry the vadas.

Now take small portions of the lentil paste (according to your desired size of the vadas) and add to the hot oil. Cook them evenly till golden brown over low-medium heat. Transfer the vadas to a paper towel to soak excess oil.

While frying the vadas, lets make the sugar syrup. In a big pan take the sugar and water. Open the cardamom pods and add them to water. Put the pan over medium flame and let the sugar dissolve. As the mixture starts boiling put the flame on low and let it simmer for 8-10 minutes. The syrup should be a thin one with single thread consistency.

Cover the pan with a lid so that the sugar syrup remains warm.

Transfer vadas, while they are hot, to the warm sugar syrup and let them soak for 30 minutes before serving.

Note :

• You can fry your vadas a bit more to get darker in colour.
• Use jaggery suitable to your taste instead of sugar, to make the jaggery syrup. In that case don’t use green cardamom in the syrup.