Bengali Dal Bori

Step 1

Begin by washing the dal properly, and then soak it for at least six hours, and more if necessary. Once that's done, grind the dal really well. While it was done by hand in earlier days, a good food processor helps. Make sure there's not too much water in it though. The idea is to get a thick paste-like dough.

Step 2

Now take the salt and the kalonji and add it to the paste. You need to whip the mixture hard, use a hand mixer, so that the batter becomes light. In the olden days, these boris were made by hand - taking a little mixture and making tear drop shapes on a newspaper and putting them out in the sun to dry. You can of course use an icing bag with a round nozzle. If a newspaper is too passé for you, use a metal tray and brush it with some oil so it doesn't stick. It takes a whole day in the sun for the dumplings to dry; keep it out for longer if it takes it time.