Rosh bora literally translates to "juice fritters" 😅 in Bengali. The "juice" is either sugar syrup or date palm–jaggery syrup. The "fritter" is made from ground mash kolai or biuli'r dal, often called "urad dal" in many South Asian languages.

Rosh bora, when served still warm, is crispy on the outside with a spongy core filled with syrup that explodes in your mouth when you bite into it. If you have had a dahi vada, you could think of this as a sweet version, but crunchier.

Rosh bora can be made any time of the year, but we tend to associate it with the Poush Sankranti festival in mid-January. Bengal is a paddy-growing culture, and Poush Sankranti is a celebration of the newly harvested rice. Over the entire month of Poush "pithey"—desserts (and some savouries)—are made out of new rice, date palm jaggery, coconut, etc.

So, how does rosh bora fit in a rice harvest festival? We are not entirely sure how, but rosh bora has managed to gatecrash this festival of rice-based desserts and become a part of it while remaining inconspicuous. And once you taste a good rosh bora, I think you will agree that if there were ever an occasion to bend the rules, this would be it.

The recipe itself is not very elaborate. If you follow the directions closely—particularly regarding the proportion of water in the dal paste, you should not have any problems.

The only way to be certain of the consistency of the batter, at least the first few times you make it, is to drain the water from the soaked dal very, very thoroughly; and only then add the prescribed quantity of water. If you don't drain the water from the dal well enough, you will end up with too much water in the batter.

The second crucial aspect of this recipe is whipping enough air into the batter so that it is airy and light. The paste is too thick to do this with a wire whisk, so you will have to use your hand. This will raise your heart rate and make your shoulder ache, but you have to keep at it for a good ten minutes.

The third thing to bear in mind—although this is more of a preference—is that these fritters can take some time to fry if you want them to turn out brown and crispy. Resist the urge to crank up the heat. Fry them gently at medium-low heat (about 160ºC). Some people don't brown them as much, stopping at a golden brown. Those rosh bora are soft and juicy but lack the crunch.