Bori Posto / Poppy Seeds Paste Coated Bengali Sun Dried Dumplings

As IKEA is the main retailer of affordable and good quality furniture and decorating items in the West, in Africa we have Orca. Orca has two main divisions here. One is Orca Deco, which specialises on the decorating items of the house, like lamps, carpets and other show pieces, and the other one is Orca Tendence, which sells affordable furniture. They were running 35% promo on all products during August and they are continuing this promo for September also. Double yay for me...because we were planning to buy some things for our home for some time and could not get enough time to go to Orca during August. Hopefully we will make it this time.

Janmashtami is on the coming Saturday. On each Janmastami my grandmother and aunt used to prepare Malpua, Naru (Coconut Laddu) and lots of other sweet things. Our Malpua was a little different than others. It had suji / semolina is large quantity, and we did not dip it in sugar syrups. It was thick and crispy. We liked it very much. And sometimes we paired the Malpua with Cholar Dal / Bengali Chana Dal, and the dinner / breakfast became out of the world delicious. I am planning to make this Malpua, Sada Narkel Naru (white coconut laddu) and Golap Jam (Gulab Jamun) for this Janmastami. What are you going to make??

Today I am sharing the recipe of Bori Posto / Bengali Sundried Dumplings Coated with Poppy seeds paste. I learned this recipe from my in-laws and it became an instant favourite. The only thing I changed in this recipe is its consistency.

My mother-in-law makes this Bori Posto with gravy, which I almost entirely ruled out here, and made this dish rather on the drier side. Also, since the dish used to be gravy like, all boris used to become soggy immediately after putting them into the poppy seeds paste. But since I made this dish dry, the boris remained crunchy and intact. I liked this version more. But if you like you can make Bori Posto with gravy also. Just add a little water before putting the boris. And you are done.

Bori Posto

Serves 3-5

Ingredients:

2 cups of bori / Bengali sun dried dumplings (I have used Hing / Asafoetida flavoured bori and Matar Dal Bori)

3 tbsp poppy seeds

4 green chillies

½ tsp kalo jeera / nigella seeds

1 tsp turmeric power

2 tbsp mustard oil

Salt

Method:

Grind the dry poppy seed till it reaches a coarse powder like consistency. Then scrap the sides of the grinder and add in 2 green chillies, ½ tbsp mustard oil and ½ cup water. Mix everything with a spoon and grind till it becomes a smooth paste. Check that no grain remains in the paste.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a kadai / pan. Shallow fry the boris in small batches till they become golden on the outside. Once done, transfer the boris in a separate bowl and keep aside.

Heat another 1 tbsp oil in the same kadai and put the kalo jeera / nigella seeds.

As the kalo jeera / nigella seeds starts to sizzle pour in the entire poppy seeds paste.

Add the turmeric powder and salt.

Keep stirring and cooking the poppy seeds paste for 2-4 minutes or until the raw poppy seeds smell is gone. If the paste tends to dry in this process add a dash of water.

If you want to make Bori Posto with a little gravy add in ½ cup of water and simmer till the gravy reaches your desired consistency.

Then add in the fried kept aside boris, rest of the mustard oil and green chillies. Slit them before adding.

Stir and make sure that every single bori gets covered with the cooked poppy seeds paste.

Do not keep them for long as it will make the boris soggy.

As soon as the boris become well coated with the poppy seeds paste, put off the flame and serve hot with some steamed hot rice and lentils.