The Season Of

Palmyra Palm

Is Here With Taler Bora, Taler Malpua And More

Quick Summary

Palmyra palm is the tree behind one of the Bengali dishes that constitute its monsoon food, or rather delicacy. While everyone knows the summer special ice apple, which is the fruit of the tree, that is watery, sweet and juicy, the ‘tal’ used in many Bengali recipes is different and uses the fibrous pulp that is extracted and used as a puree. The ripe tal’s amber pulp is turned into fritters, puddings, and flatbreads across Bengali households every year, especially during and around Janmashtami.

Deep Dive

The same palmyra palm tree also produces nolen gur, the liquid golden winter syrup of Bengal that goes into making desserts like talshash sondesh and payesh. The same tree sap is boiled and reduced to make jaggery called taler gur, which is one of the many types of jaggery around the country, and can claim steep prices because of a limited window of availability and also increasingly limited produce. So, this monsoon season, fill your home with the smell of one from the tal, in its ripe state, which smells like a mix of honey and caramel notes blended with its own tropical fruit smell that is hard to beat. 

What is the Palmyra Palm?

The palmyra palm (Borassus flabellifer) is a fan palm native to South Asia, known in Bengali as tal, and it produces a translucent, jelly-like fruit sometimes called ice apple during the summer months. The fruit is soft, with the jelly-like segments having a texture close to lychee. As the season progresses, that jelly hardens into large seeds encased in a fibrous shell holding a golden, fruity-caramel pulp, and it's this ripened pulp that Bengali dishes use during the season for monsoon cooking.

The palmyra tree is the tallest among Bengal's palms, taller than coconut, date, or betel palm, and a single tree can live up to 150 years and reach 30 metres in height. When the giant fruits ripen towards the end of monsoon, the tree simply drops them to the ground, which is often how people scuttle to their local market to get their hands on a ripened palm.

Why Bengalis Cook With Taal Every Monsoon

The window for this ingredient is short, and that scarcity is part of the appeal. Tal season runs roughly through August, after which the fruit disappears until the following year. That narrow availability is why so much Bengali festive cooking clusters around this one month, where the labour-intensive task of extracting the pulp begins.

Bengali families prepare taler bora or taler kheer closer to Janmashtami, and taler bora specifically is made as the main prasad offering for the festival in West Bengal. Beyond the religious significance, tal is monsoon food with good nutritional value. The extraction process itself (squeezing pulp from the fibrous kernels) is laborious enough that it tends to become a family activity.

How to Extract Tal Pulp at Home

Every recipe below starts here, so here’s covering it all at one go:

• Remove the crown and tear away the black outer fibrous shell of the ripe fruit, as you would for a coconut.

• Locate the 2-3 fibrous kernels inside and separate them.

• Splash a little water over the kernels and rub them against a strainer, sieve, or upturned basket to squeeze out the pulp.

• Collect the extracted juice-pulp in a bowl, discarding the inedible fibre.

• Reduce the pulp on low heat if the recipe calls for a thickened base, stirring to avoid catching at the bottom.

One large, ripe palmyra palm fruit typically yields enough pulp for a small batch of any of the dishes below.

Bengali Monsoon Dishes Made With Palmyra Palm

Armed with the extracted palm puree, you can now make the famed Bengali dishes that dominate the monsoon season.

1. Taler Bora

The most recognisable of all tal dishes, taler bora recipes vary slightly by household but follow the same method.

Ingredients:

• Extracted tal pulp

• Whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour

• Semolina (sooji)

• Jaggery or sugar

• Freshly grated coconut

• A pinch of nigella seeds (optional)

• Oil, for deep frying

Method:
The thick tal pulp is combined with flour, jaggery, and grated coconut into a batter. Coconut and plain flour are typically folded in right before frying. They are added late to limit gluten formation and keep the fritters light. Small dollops of the batter are dropped into medium-hot oil and fried for about 10 minutes, until they turn a deep, dark brown and develop a more complex, caramel-like flavour.

This is how to make taler bora in most Bengali households, though some cooks fold in mashed banana for extra sweetness rather than sticking to a pure jaggery version. It is also called taler fuluri in some homes, and tends to be sweeter. 

2. Taler Pithe

Unlike the fried dishes on this list, taler pithe takes the steaming route, giving Bengali monsoon food its softer, cake-like register.

Ingredients:

• Extracted tal pulp

• Rice flour

• All-purpose flour

• Milk

• Sugar or jaggery

• Freshly grated coconut

• A pinch of baking powder

• Banana leaves or small containers, for steaming

Method:
The tal pulp is combined with rice flour, a pinch of salt, and all-purpose flour, and turned into a batter with milk and sugar that is thick and pourable. The mixture is left to rest for about 15 minutes, and then just before steaming, grated coconut and baking powder are folded in. The batter is then portioned into banana leaf cones or small containers and steamed until set. Some homes also make patishapta pithe, which is close to a crepe but thicker.

3. Taler Malpua

This sweet is a constant during many festivals, especially Holi, and uses tal pulp mixed with rice flour to make a batter, occasionally thickened with milk, then shallow-fried into small, dense pancakes and soaked briefly in sugar syrup, which is the same principle as a standard malpua, but with tal pulp doing the flavouring work instead of just mashed banana or khoya.

4. Taler Luchi

Taler luchi is a sweet version of the classic Bengali fried bread, made by kneading tal pulp directly into the dough along with flour, a little oil or ghee, and sometimes black cumin. Small portions are rolled out and deep-fried until they puff up. The taler luchi recipe produces a bread with a faint natural sweetness and golden-orange tint, distinct from the plain white luchi served with everyday curries.

5. Taler Kheer (or Payesh)

Kheer is the staple of the festive season, and when it meets the monsoon season tal, it turns into taler payesh. The pulp is cooked in a milky concoction of milk, sugar, and grated coconut into a rich, creamy pudding. It is often finished with cashews, almonds, and raisins to add texture, and sometimes, for added flavour, cardamom is added. Some prefer to save time by using condensed milk to add more sweetness and save on the milk. It's traditionally offered to Lord Krishna during Janmashtami and is especially popular across both West Bengal and Bangladesh. Unlike the fried dishes on this list, taler kheer is meant to be eaten slightly warm or chilled.

Tal Dishes Compared

Nutrition of Tal

Ripe tal pulp carries good nutritional value and is not just a festive role with barely any nutrition. Ice apples are rich in vitamins A, B, and C, plus minerals like zinc, iron, potassium, phosphorus, and calcium. Per 100 grams, the fruit has roughly 10 grams of carbohydrates, 0.5 grams of protein, and just 0.1 grams of fat. It’s worth noting that once turned into bora, malpua, or kheer with added sugar, jaggery, and frying oil, these dishes become an occasional treat rather than something to be eaten every day.