Taal'er Luchi
made with taal (palmyra) pulp
- Cooking time60 minutes
Calories93kcal
Taal is the Bangla name for the toddy palm fruit. Ripe fruits appear in the market in the middle of August and stay on for just over a month. It is a fibrous fruit with a golden-yellow, sweet, fragrant pulp. The pulp is turned into all kinds of sweets in Bengal—fried sweet-savoury fritters (phuluri), taal-flavoured rice puddings, and various other stuffed sweetmeats.
Taaler luchi is a fried puffy bread that is kneaded with the pulp instead of water, resulting in golden luchi instead of the regular white luchis. These are often eaten with taal kheer.
The taal tree is an important part of Bengal's natural landscape. It is a giant among giants—being the tallest tree in Bengal's flora of tall palms such as the coconut, date and betel palms. The tree is loved so much that it has had poems written for it by both of Bengal's greatest poets—Rabindranath and Nazrul. The love endures to this day.
Books in this recipe
Ingredients
- 200 g maida (all-purpose flour)
- 4 g salt
- 15 g vegetable oil
- ~135 g taal (palmyra) pulp
- oil for frying
Method
- Extract the taal pulp as shown in the video.
- In a mixing bowl, combine flour, salt and vegetable oil, mixing the oil in evenly.
- Add the taal pulp and knead the dough until smooth. The amount of taal you need will depend on the water content of your pulp. We used ~135 g.
- Rest the dough for 30 mins, after which divide it into 16 g portions.
- Roll out the luchis, and fry them in hot (over 200°C) oil. Serve hot.
