Rosh bora recipe | Bengali rosbora recipe – a sweet bengali pitha 

Rosh bora recipe aka bengali rosbora recipe – a flavourful sweet pitha of our bengali cuisine with step by step pictures. Rosh bora is basically a soft and juicy urad dal fritters soaked in a sweet syrup made with sugar or date palm jaggery. Prepared with urad dal(overnight soaked), fennel seeds, soda, date palm jaggery, sugar, cardamom and bay leaves. Winter, especially Makar Sankranti or poush Sankranti is the right time to make this dessert at home. Compared to dudh puli or patishapta pitha, its quick preparation satisfy your cravings for pitha. I learnt this roshbora aka rosbora recipe from my mom. Today I will show how my mom make this dish in a simple and easy way.

Rosh bora aka rosbora is a sweet dish from Bengal, so this sweet is named in Bengali. In our bengali language rosh or ros means sweet syrup can be made with sugar or jaggery, flavoured with cardamom. On the other hand, bora means fritter, here it is an urad dal fritter or urad dal pakoda. In short, this bengali pitha goes through two steps method. Making of deep-fried urad dal fritter and preparing of its hot dipping date palm jaggery syrup or sugar syrup. Almost the same method is used in making gulab jamun. The speciality of both sweets are the same, easily melts in the mouth. 

Rosh bora is a popular traditional sweet of West Bengal and Bangladesh, called pitha /pithe. However, in our bengali cuisine, pitha is prepared with rice flour and coconut and ros bora has no common ingredients with pitha. Just because, this sweet is prepared in Poush Sankranti and mostly made with date palm jaggery or nolen gur, so it is considered as pitha/pithe.

Try this sweet at home and let me know your valuable feedback about this roshbora recipe in the comment section below.

You may try my other dessert recipes like payesh(sweet kheer) for the upcoming Makar Sankranti or Poush Parbon festival-

Nolen gurer payesh

Chinir payesh(kheer with rice and sugar)

Choshir payesh

Rosh bora recipe | Bengali rosbora recipe – a sweet bengali pita

Rosh bora recipe | Bengali rosbora recipe – a sweet bengali pita 

Recipe by Moumita PaulCourse: Sweet dish/ DessertCuisine: BengaliDifficulty: Easy

Servingsservings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Calories

300

kcal

Total time

57

minutes

Rosh bora aka ros bora is basically a soft and juicy urad dal fritters soaked in a sweet syrup made with sugar or date palm jaggery. Prepared with urad dal(overnight soaked), fennel seeds, soda, date palm jaggery, sugar, cardamom and bay leaves.Winter, especially Makar Sankranti or poush Sankranti is the right time to make this dessert at home.

Ingredients
For making rosh/sweet syrup

• 8 cups or 2 litr Water

• 300 gms Date palm jaggery(chunks)

• 100 gms Sugar

• 4 tbsp Nolen gur(liquid date palm jaggery)

• 3 Cardamom(half crushed)

• 2 Bay leaves

• For making bora/fritter/pakoda

• 200 gms Urad dal(Biulir dal/MasKolai dal)

• 1 tsp Fennel seeds

• 1/4 tsp Soda

Instructions

• Making of rosh/ros(sweet syrup)
• Take a wide vessel, fill it up with 8 cups(2 litres) of water. Put the vessel on heat, add 300 gms date palm jaggery(patali gur) chunks. let the jaggery melts into the water. Stir it continuously.
• Add 3 half crushed cardamom, 2 bay leaves into the water.
• Once the gur completely meltdown, add 100 gms of white sugar, stir the syrup until the sugar melts down.
• Boil the syrup for 10 mins, lastly add 4 tbsp of liquid date palm jaggery or nolen gur(for flavour). Stir it well and turn off the flame. Rosh or sweet syrup is ready, keep it aside for later use.
• Making of bora/fritter/pakoda
• Take 200 gms of urad dal(biulir dal/maskolai er dal, wash it thoroughly 5-6 times or until dal not get cleaned. Soak it for 8-10 hours or overnight in ample water.
  
• Once the dal soaked perfectly, strain it and put it in a grinder jar with 1 tsp of fennel seeds. First, grind it without adding water.
• After first grinding, gradually add 1/2 cup of water during its whole grinding process. Grind till get a smooth paste of dal.
• Transfer the dal paste to a mixing bowl, start beating the paste with hand or hand bitter. You can use electric bitter for quick results.
• Once the batter gets soft and fluffy, check it by putting its small dollop in a bowl full of water. If the dollop floats on the water means the batter is ready. Stop beating.
• Heat a deep frying pan with oil(white oil/mustard oil or white oil+ghee).
• To check the oil, add a drop of batter into the hot oil. If the drop immediately come up over the oil and floats. Means the oil is perfectly hot.
• Keep the flame at low and start making the bora/fritter/pakoda one by one into the oil.
• Fry the bora in slow heat to cook it evenly from outside and inside.
• Once the fritters get golden then remove them from the pan and keep them on a tissue paper-lined plate. Keep continuing the same process until all the fritters are not fried.
• How to soak bora in rosh
• Again heat the rosh or syrup on high heat, let it boil, put the bora into the syrup and cook the bora for 30 secs to 1 min.
• Then turn off the heat. Close the pan and rest it for at least 3-4 hours.
• Serve it when the bora completely cools down and after soaking the rosh gets double in size.

Notes

• Don’t add more water to the batter. For making good bora, the consistency of the batter must be thick.
• Good stirring can make the bora fluffy by creating more air in the batter.
• If a dollop of batter sinks into the water means stirring is not enough, needs more stirring.
• If the stirring is not perfect the fritter gets hard instead of soft and fluffy.
• In the traditional recipe, bora is fried in mustard oil, here I used white oil. Here I am cooking with white oil, however, you may use mustard oil or white oil+ghee in the same quantity.
• While making syrup dirt of sugar and date palm jaggery may appear over the syrup, remove it with a spatula.
• Add sugar for intense sweetness otherwise skip this step. Don’t miss to add fennel seeds in dal for good flavour and soda for soft and crisp fritter/pakoda. Cardamom is a must-use ingredient in making flavourful syrup, however, you may skip bay leaves if not like its flavour.

How to make rosh bora with step by step pics

Making of rosh or ros(sweet syrup)

• Take a wide pan with 8 cups or 2 litres of water(each cup=250ml), add 300 gms patali gur or solid date palm jaggery chunks.

• Add 3 little crushed cardamoms and 2 bay leaves(optional). Let it boil and completely melt into the water.

• Then add 100 gms sugar for the intense sweetness and wait till completely meltdown.

• Lastly 4 tbsp of liquid date palm jaggery for creating more flavour in the rosh. 

Making bora

• Take 200 gms urad dal, wash it thoroughly 5-6 times or until the dal is perfectly cleaned. Soak it 8-10 hours or best to soak overnight.

• After complete soaking, put the dal in a grinder with 1 tsp fennel seeds.

• First grind the dal without water, then after first grinding add 1/2 cup of water(125 ml) during grinding. Make a quite smooth paste of dal.

• Transfer the batter in a mixing bowl. Start stirring the batter until get fluffy or create more air into the batter.

• You may do stirring by hand or use a hand beater. Even you can use a electric bitter for quick result. Good stirring can make the bora fluffy by creating more air in the batter.

• To check the batter is perfectly fluffy by putting a dollop of batter into a bowl full of water. If the dollop start floating on the water indicates the batter is perfect fluffy and ready to fry the bora.

• Heat a pan(deep bottom pan), add oil(used white oil) for deep frying.
• Once the oil gets perfectly hot, add a drop of batter into the hot oil. If the drop immediately come up on the surface of the oil and floats.

• Means the oil is perfectly hot, start making the bora/fritter into the oil. Fry the bora in slow heat to cook it evenly from outside and inside.

• Once the fritters gets golden then remove it from the pan(with a perforated ladle) and keep them on a tissue paper-lined plate. 

Method of soaking bora in rosh

• Once all the batches of bora is fried well, then again put the rosh or syrup on high heat, let it boil, put the bora into the syrup and cook the bora for 30 secs to 1 min.

• Then turn off the heat. Close the pan and rest it for at least 3-4 hours to get the perfect soft and juicy rosh bora sweet.

• To get the best result, serve this pitha when it is completely cool down and gets double in size after soaking the syrup.