NARKEL ER BORA

We had watched Ranbir Kapoor starrer Jagga Jasoos last night and oh! I am wondering what genre I can tag it as; extreme state of fantasy? I could not handle it. Throughout the entire movie, I could not keep track of what was happening and preferred to sleep. My man says it was experimental, an attempt at a musical one, I strongly felt whatever it is, it failed. We both are Ranbir Kapoor fans at home, yet he could not keep me up on my toes. I thought it would be a thriller, but there was total absence of a strong script in the movie. However, my craze for Bollywood continues and we enjoy our night outs with a neighbourhood couple. We are too much of movie buffs, we do not mind venturing out on weekday nights. What varies is my level of satisfaction, back from watching a really good movie, I usually feel happy and content which was missing yesterday. The senior jokingly told its good to watch such movies often where we do not have to think much; fill it, shut it, forget it.

I am a sit at home, good for nothing not a good 'wo-man', I have nothing much to do all day other than watching movies, cooking a bit or reading or listening to music, yet I reserve this 'watching movie' part to be had together with him, I enjoy his company though it has never been a running around the tree kind of relationship. I keep on telling my friends it is not that my man will get angry if I go out with you all, but I still do not because he feels and understands me way too much; which you may not. His mother was a champion about freaking out with her girlfriends, chatting, eating out, it is quite obvious she would not be happy with this quiet, dull, unsocial daughter-in-law. He learnt to respect women from his father who never stopped his wife from doing what she likes. I have complained about him to people but till date he has never talked negative about me to anyone; he could have. He always asks me to be happy in whatever I do. Hence, I happily prepare all kinds of pakoras or fries over the weekend to enjoy with our joint 'drinking session'. The son loves fritters so much so that whatever combination it is, he will have a couple of them. The husband loves the non-vegetarian ones over the vegetarian ones.

Narkel er bora or Coconut Fritters was / is made frequently in my side of the family. My mother hated wastage of food. Whenever coconut milk was used to prepare any dish, mani would use the remaining shredded coconut to prepare bora / pakora / fritters. That perhaps was the scenario in every middle class home then. I do not mind saying that a major part of my life was spent in a two-roomed rented house, and a happy home indeed where the mother used to say 'dekhli tor baba amar ekta kothao shoney na'; see your father does not listen to me at any time and the next moment I saw she was all set to prepare "murir moya, chirer moya, naru" for him and us; they were worst examples of feminism and so am I. 

I have not even inherited 1/4 of the quality of our mother or grandmother, whatever little I have I use it doing it for the dear ones. You people may well call it a weapon to hide my deficiencies, what to do I am such a shameless creature, there is no place to hide my parasitical being in my present 1100 sq ft flat either. I keep on bragging about my-self to the world; these are all attributes of an illiterate you know.

Anyway, preparing narkel er bora was not much of a quick and easy thing in those days; moms had to buy a coconut, break it, shred it and then proceed with the process of preparing heavenly pakora with it. We do not have to go through such hassles, we get readymade shredded coconut at shops here, I prepare it often. Let me tell you what kind of an extreme case our mother is; she never gets small fish or chicken cut by the seller, she gets whole and cuts them by herself, she just asks the seller to get the skin off from the chicken. She is miser enough to keep a gardening help, and does it all by herself, even at unearthly hours of the afternoon wearing a cap. 

I am no where near our mother; when I see my blogger friends sharing posts of hand pounded spices and elaborate recipes, I see my mother and grandmother in them or the yesteryear ladies at large. Some of them have blogged about narkel er bora or coconut fritters too beautifully, I am adding mine following my mother's recipe of it. I either serve it with a Bengali style coriander chutney or we enjoy it with some rice and dal. Come let us prepare it together.

INGREDIENTS :

Shredded Coconut : 2big cups
Green Chilli : 2-3chopped
Rice Flour : 1/2small tea cup
Gram Flour : 2 tbsp
Salt : As Required
Sugar : 1tsp [optional]
Turmeric Powder : 1/2tsp
Oil : 1medium cup to deep fry

METHOD :

Take the shredded coconut in a bowl. Add the chopped green chillies, all the flours, salt, sugar and turmeric in it. Mix well. We will try not to add water because coconut itself releases water.

Prepare balls from the mix taking small portions and flatten little with help of your palms. They are ready to be fried.

Heat oil in a wok. Fry the narkel er bora at low to moderate heat in batches. We need to adjust the heat from time to time. Too less heat breaks the fritters and too much of it burns them outside while the inside remains uncooked. Patience is required in cooking.

Take out the fritters already done and place on a tissue paper. Transfer to a serving plate after sometime & serve with a chutney or with dal & rice!

At our home, our mom used to prepare a coriander chutney / dhonepata bata with say a big cup of washed and chopped coriander leaves, 1/4tsp nigella seeds, 1green chilli, 1or 2 cloves of garlic. She pasted them in a "shil Nora"; I cannot use it! Here is my recipe; blend it to a paste, add little salt and mix well. We had it with piping hot steamed rice adding a little of mustard oil to it.... a humble recipe from a humble household. It you are having it as an accompaniment to fries and fritters, skip using the mustard oil. Enjoy narkel er bora, crisp and hot with your loved ones.