Home ›› 01 Jan 2022 ›› Nation
Dried lentil-wax gourd nuggets, locally known as Kumro Bori or simply bori, a popular add-on in Bengali cuisine to enhance the taste and variability of different curries, have become a new means of employment for rural women of Rajshahi.
The authentic taste enhancer, Kumro Bori has been a part of Bengali cuisine for centuries. Rural women of the Indian subcontinent have been making the nuggets with wax gourd and lentils for centuries.
The sun-dried nuggets can be stored for a long time and can be added to different curries when other food elements, such as vegetables, are scarce, especially in the summertime.
Hundreds of women of Godagari, Puthia, Joypurhat, Natore’s Madhabnagar, Palpara and Lalpur upazilas and their adjacent areas in Rajshahi have turned their hobby into a profession by commercially making Bori and distributing it to different areas of the country.
Aklima Begum, a resident of Puthia’s Sadhanpur of Natore district, who has been commercially making dried lentil nuggets for years now, told The Business Post that the process is very complex and difficult, and that is why it is difficult to market the food enhancer.
However, together with assistance from their families and friends, they have been able to make a profession out of their culinary skillset, which they had acquired hereditarily.
They are now using different online platforms to sell their product. “Usually, we sell a kilogramme of bori for Tk 150 to Tk 170. We also modify our recipes to match the requirements of our consumers. In that case, we charge Tk 200 to Tk 250 for one kilogramme of bori,” said Nasima Begum, a resident of Baknai area of Lalpur upazila, Natore.
Bori is made with a mixture of black gram and wax gourd paste and has to be sun-dried for three to four days before use. Once dried properly, it can be stored in an airtight container for a few months.
Bori can be fried and enjoyed as a snack or can be added to fish and vegetable dishes to enhance the taste, explained Nasima, adding that they also use cabbage instead of wax-gourd sometimes.
The lentil-gourd paste is laid out on a mat or cheesecloth in the sunlight. It sticks to the mat when wet but comes off easily when dried. The simplest form of Bori takes the canonical shape, she added.
Intricate artistic designs can also be made with the paste when squeezed out through a funnel or cone. This is called Naksha Bori. It is also called Gohona Bori or Gayna Bori because the designs often look like those of jewellery (Gahanna or Gayna is Bengali for jewellery). To avoid breaking Naksha Bori when removing from the mat, a layer of roasted poppy seeds is spread before laying the paste, the makers said.
Traders from all over the country flock to these villages to collect this food item and sell it to the local markets of Bogura, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Gaibandha, Dhaka and several northern districts.
Each kilogramme of Kumro Bori sells between Tk 150 to Tk 300 based on their quality and taste. “The quality of the nuggets depends on the quantity of the juice of wax gourd and black gram. The lower quality, which is high in demand and priced less in the market (around Tk 200 per kg), contains a small amount of rice flour,” said Masoura Begum Kakoli, a teacher by profession of Dighapatia area of Natore Sadar upazila.
“As the price of wax gourd and black gram is high, the price of Kumro Bori is higher than the other kinds. The food enthusiasts also prefer this kind as it becomes fluffy, containing more flavours from the other elements of the curry than the rice-flour ones,” she said.
Sanowar Hossain, a trader who came to the Madhabnagar Haat of Natore to buy Bori, told The Business Post that over 100 families are involved in commercial Bori making in the village.
“The makers in this village can produce the food item containing an optimum amount and quality. These nuggets have a huge demand across the country. As we can get our preferred amount and quality dumplings from these areas, we prefer to trade Bori from this village,” he added.
