Kumro'r Bora/Bhaja
Two easy, delicious pumpkin fries
- Cooking time30 minutes
Calorieskcal
Kumro'r bora and kumro bhaja are two easy pumpkin recipes. The ripe sweet pumpkin (mishti kumro) is in season starting September and it starts making an appearance everywhere. For example, in a Bangal household, the Lokkhi Pujo'r bhog is incomplete without five kinds of fried vegetables, one of which is kumro (pumpkin) bhaja.
Kumro'r bora is a pumpkin fritter, the batter for which, in our house, is made of maida (plain flour) instead of besan (Bengal gram flour), because maida is neutral and does not overpower the beautiful sweet flavour of the mishti kumro. One could, of course, use besan for the batter too. If you decide to go that way, use the batter mix from our beguni recipe.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ingredients
Serves
4 servings
- 200 g pumpkin
For kumro bhaja
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- ¼ tsp atta (flour)
For kumro'r bora
- ¼ tsp salt (for coating pumpkin slices)
- ¼ tsp sugar (for coating pumpkin slices)
- 50 g flour
- 1 pinch turmeric powder
- ¼ tsp salt (for batter)
- 1 tsp sugar (for batter)
- 1 pinch kaalo jeere (nigella seeds)
- ½ tsp posto (poppy seeds)
- 1 pc green chilli (finely chopped)
- ½ tsp mustard oil
- 75 g water
- mustard oil (for deep frying)
Method
Making kumro bhaja
- Slice pumpkin 1.5 cm thick, and roughly 5 cm x 4 cm wide.
- Since these slices have sharp edges, which will burn when fried, we must round them out. To round the corners, shave 1 mm off each corner at a slant.
- Make tiny gashes on the skin side to allow even seasoning.
- In a small mixing bowl, mix salt, sugar, turmeric powder, and atta. Coat the pieces with this spice mixture and set aside for 5 minutes.
- Heat mustard oil in a skillet. Shallow-fry the marinated pumpkin in a single layer until golden-brown. This will take roughly 4 minutes.
- Once done, drain from the oil and serve hot off the pan.
Making kumro'r bora
- Cut pumpkin into 1 cm thick slices. Coat with salt and sugar.
- To make the batter, mix flour, turmeric powder, salt, sugar, nigella seeds, poppy seeds, finely chopped green chillies, and mustard oil with water.
- In a kadai, heat mustard oil for deep frying.
- Drain excess water from the pumpkin slices. Dip each slice in the batter and drop it in hot oil.
- Fry until golden-brown. Serve hot.
