Daler Bora – Bengali Lentil Fritters

The Indian kitchen is bereft without lentils. Lentils are the crown jewel that makes all things better. In fact, we have lentils with lentils like these daler boras.

The humble and much loved daler bora is a very interesting concept. They are small lentil fritters that we Bengalis often enjoy with rice and dal sometimes as a part of a pure vegetarian meal. Essentially, a typical part of the Bengali meal is to pair something fried with the dal.  I am retrieving the recipe for Mushoor daler bora, or red lentil fritters for this post.

My Daler Bora Story

In some ways, this is too humble a recipe to work a blog post around and yet here it is. The reason is because, someone just wanted the recipe. I find it easier to work up a post when I am asked for a recipe. This way I have it for posterity. The distinction of lentils fritters at least in my house is that they are made with yellow or red lentils. This is different from the Southern Indian Lentil fritters which are typically made with white lentils or Urad dal.  All things considered however these fritters are quintessential comfort food.

How to Enjoy the Daler Bora

Great as these delectable spicy morsels taste with rice and dal, they work very well as a small and humble appetizer. Perfect, serviced with ketchup, India’s favorite condiment. Sure there are chutneys on the Indian table, but when all else fails we love our ketchup. BTW, folks if you have not tried the Sriracha ketchup you should. If you are a Sriracha fan like me, this ketchup is a game changer. It adds just the right amount of attitude to ketchup.

The weekend draws to a close, I am feeling incredibly well rested and just a little reluctant to head back to the general craziness of things. It is for moods like this some crunchy daler bora calls your name.

We love all things friterable in this household and two other fun recipes are these white lentil and onion fritters and kale fritters.