Bori (Bengali: বড়ি) is a form of dried lentil dumplings popular in Bengali cuisine. It is made from a paste of urad dal and winter melon which is sun-dried for 3–5 days. Once fully dried, it can easily last for about a year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bori_(food)
After making bori, I had to do something with it! I had intended to make this recipe and also just deep fry some of it as a crunchy snack, but it turned out I only had enough to make this recipe.
Jhal, or jhol, is a Bengali word for spicy, and also the name for a family of saucy dishes featuring fish and/or various vegetables like potatoes and eggplant. Initially I got the impression that it is always a mustard based sauce, but as I looked at more recipes I found quite a few recipes that didn’t use mustard, so I guess that’s maybe not true, although it did make it into my recipe.
Aloo is potato, begun is eggplant, and of course bori are sun-dried lentil dumplings.
The dish is pretty simple to make. Fry potatoes and eggplant, fry tomato and spices, mix it all together and simmer, add the bori at the end.
My recipe calls for a mixture of black and yellow mustard seed. I wound up using brown and yellow, as I was mistaken about which variety I had in the cupboard. Black mustard seed is, I believe, somewhat spicier than brown, but otherwise this change probably didn’t really affect the flavor.
Most of the recipes I looked at just called for mustard paste, something that apparently gets used in many Bengali dishes, and is usually made in batches to last several days. The recipes that did tell you how to make the paste were fairly diverse in terms of ingredients; one recipe used milk instead of water for grinding, saying it helps bring out the spicy flavor, another added green chilies. It really boiled down to mustard seed being the only common ingredient among them, so I kept it super simple.
The mustard is soaked for about 15 minutes, then ground to a paste. If you’re making a large batch this could be easily accomplished in a blender. For 2 Tablespoons of mustard seed though, that wasn’t enough to even begin to engage the blades, so I had to come up with another method. I started with my small mortar and pestle, but it’s made of smooth marble and didn’t really do anything. Next I tried to use my immersion blender, but again, not enough mustard to reach the blades. Finally I pulled out my big mortar, which is made of ceramic, left somewhat rough and unglazed on the inside, with a heavy wooden pestle. That took a few minutes of pounding and grinding, but I managed to get to at least a rough paste. It was still pretty chunky, but most of the seeds were crushed. Some of the recipes called for dissolving the mustard paste in water and then straining it to remove chaff. I tried that, but wound up with pretty much all the paste back in the strainer, because I couldn’t get it ground finely enough, so I wound up throwing the solids into the pot anyway.
Mustard oil is commonly used as the preferred cooking oil in Bengal, especially in a dish like this that is heavily mustard based anyway.
Before you start building the jhal, you’ll want to fry your bori until lightly browned. They are thirsty little sponges, so most recipes only use a tablespoon or two of oil so they don’t get overly greasy. The bori also soak up a LOT of water, so make sure your jhal is quite liquid before you add the bori- probably at least half again as much as my pictures show if you want a traditional wet jhal.
Most of the spices used in this recipe are pretty typical Indian spices; turmeric, cumin, coriander, and red chili powder (I used mild Kashmiri mostly for color, but you could use regular for a spicier dish). The unusual one is Nigella seeds* , also known as kala Jeera or kalonji in India, and black cumin or black coriander in English (Also, onion seeds, which they are not, but are what any recipe that calls for onion seeds is actually referring to). Their distinct flavor is described as having notes of onion, oregano and black pepper, and they are often sprinkled on breads to add crunch and flavor (They are especially delicious on naan and bagels.)
Allo Begun Bori Jhal
Serves: 4
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 35 minutes
Total: 55 minutes
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1 Tablespoon black mustard seed
1 Tablespoon Yellow Mustard Seed
1 pinch salt
1 Tablespoons mustard oil
85 g bori
2 Tablespoons mustard oil
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
1 large eggplant, cut in bite sized pieces
¼ teaspoons turmeric
¼ teaspoons Kashmiri red chili powder
Salt to taste
1 Tablespoon mustard oil
1 teaspoon nigella seed
1 large tomato, chopped
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoons Kashmiri red chili powder
¾ teaspoon ground cumin
⅞ teaspoon ground coriander
⅛ teaspoon sugar
¾ cup water, plus more as needed
4 green chilies, split
Optional:
4 Tablespoons other cooking oil, in place of mustard oil
1 Tablespoon garlic paste
½ teaspoon panch phoran (Bengali 5-spice), tempered with nigella seed
¾ teaspoon cumin seed, tempered with nigella seed
2 dried red chilies, tempered with nigella seed
Wash mustard seeds and soak for 15 minutes. Drain and add seeds to a mortar and pestle along with a pinch of salt. Grind to a smooth paste. Set aside.
Heat 1 Tablespoon of mustard oil in a wok or large skillet. Add bori and fry until lightly browned. Use a slotted spoon to remove and set aside.
Add another 2 Tablespoons of oil and the potatoes. Fry for a few minutes, until edges start to brown. Add the eggplant, along with ¼ teaspoon each of turmeric and Kashmiri red chili powder and a pinch of salt. Fry for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until eggplant is lightly browned. Remove from oil and set aside.
Add another Tablespoon of oil to the pan and add the nigella seed. Fry until it sputters, 30 seconds or so. Add the tomato and cook until it begins to break down. Add ½ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder, ground cumin, ground coriander and sugar. Continue to fry until oil begins to separate from the mixture.
Return the potato and eggplant to the pan and mix well. Mix 1 ½ Tablespoons of the mustard paste with ¾ cup water and add to the pan. Add green chilies, and additional water as needed to make a soupy mixture (at least 3-4 cups). Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes or so, until potatoes and eggplant are tender.
Add the bori and mix gently. Continue to simmer, covered, for another 2-3 minutes, until the gravy reaches your desired consistency. Remove from heat and taste for seasoning.
Serve with steamed rice.
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Lorin cooks Legumes 
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