Borir Jhaal (Aloo vadi)

The bori or Vadi as we call in Hindi are sun dried lentil dumplings. In the north its mostly spicy but we bengalies prefer the non spicy one. We have bori in small and medium size of massoor, urad , chola daal. During childhood days, come summer and Ma used to make these BORIs , sun drying them and then packing them in air tight jars for the whole year. Now a days Bori/ Vadi are readily available in grocery shops. We like putting these boris in vegg recipes as well as fish recipes. And sometimes its just the borir jhaal which we like to devour with steaming rice.

The "bori aloo r jhaal " is a typical HOT bengali recipe. I used the medium sized urad daal bori(which I had brought from Kolkata and saved a few) and small arhar daal badi (which i had got from Indian Market).

So I used :

The above mentioned boris

diced tomatoes

a small potato cut into wedges

and Ginger Jeera paste..now I usually make the paste of an inch  or 2 or ginger and little soaked Jeera , keep it in an air tight container. This comes handy in many of my cooking. And before closing the lid of the container a drizzle a little of oil on the sorface of the paste.. This keeps it fresh for a longer time.

Now the instructions:

Heat a little oil(preferrably mustard oil ) in a non stick pan. Fry the boris at medium flame. Keep aside, you may drain the excess oil in a kitchen towel

Now in the pan heat little oil again, temper half a spoon of kalaunji.

Add the potatoes. Fry a little. Now add the diced tomatoes. Cook a little. Add the ginger paste. Add haldi, salt and red chilli powder as per taste. Cook till the masala is done. Add water as desired. Now add the boris. You may add the boris first and then the water. I went the former way as my boris were too soft. Simmer this for very few minutes. Garnish with coriander.