Shiuli Fritters to Welcome Autumn in Bengal

For Bengalis, the arrival of autumn is marked not merely by a calendar but by small sensory changes like shiuli flowers scattered beneath trees at dawn. Shiuli or night flowering jasmine is known as a flower, but its leaves also have anti-inflammatory properties, and are commonly eaten as fritters, finds Srilagna Majumdar.

The arrival of autumn or sharot is often marked by small sensory changes in Bengal. Mornings start with the sweet smell of shiuli flowers (night flowering jasmine) scattered on the damp earth, giving way to clear blue skies and the first stirrings of Durga Puja preparations. Alongside nature, the kitchen changes too. Socially and historically, Bengali households have always been eating with the seasons, turning things growing around ponds, backyards and garden edges into delicious, innovative dishes. Sharot, when Bengal seems to be holding its breath before starting the annual Puja festivities, is the season of foods that are fleeting, local and often overlooked.

As monsoon recedes, Bengali kitchens cling tighter to their domestic frugality and seasonal knowledge: edible leaves, flowers, stems and aquatic plants enter the cooking pots. Bengalis having roots in pre-Partition East Bengal (Bangladesh after 1971) remind themselves how the rural Bengal landscape produced things that could be ‘gathered’ rather than bought. Recipes vary from household to household, and much of the knowledge around them still remain oral and are passed down along generations.

There is an intimate relationship between fields, flowers and the Bengali kitchen. For example, the flowers, leaves and tender pods of Agasti tree (Sesbania grandiflora) or bokphul are edible. The flowers are prepared into crunchy fritters, dipping them into gram-flour batter and frying in mustard oil. The water lily or shapla is a close cousin of lotus, which is indispensable in the worship of Durga. Shapla grows in abundance in Bengal’s marshes, beels and flooded fields post monsoon. Interestingly, the edible possibilities of it extend beyond the flower itself. The stalks are used as vegetables and are conjured into spicy non-veg dishes like shapla chingri (prawn curry with water lily stalks).  

While shiuli or night flowering jasmine is overwhelmingly known as a flower, its lesser-known culinary use turns the cultural connotation and sharot iconography almost upside down. Shiuli leaves also have anti-inflammatory properties, boost immunity and are effective in controlling diabetes. I have grown up seeing mother and grandmother take young leaves from the shiuli tree opposite our home and make them into delicious fritters or boras for lunch during the months of September-October. The leaves are a little bitter and hence are served early in a Bengali meal; bitterness has a legitimate place at the beginning of an elaborate Bengali meal (like neem, ucche or bitter gourd and shaak or bitter wild greens). Sometimes, these leaves are also filled with a mixture of coconut, cottage cheese and mustard, before frying them into fritters­: this is an older preparation making the boras more filling.

RECIPE FOR SHIULI PATAR BORA

Ingredients
6 fresh shiuli leaves
50 gms chickpea flour
50 gms rice flour
A pinch of turmeric
2 tbsp black cumin seeds
Salt and red chilli powder to taste

Method
Chop the washed leaves or keep them whole.
Make a smooth paste with rice flour, chickpea flour, turmeric, salt, red chilli powder and some black cumin seeds for flavour.
Make small balls out of the mixture and chopped leaves, or dip the whole leaves in the batter, and deep fry them in mustard oil. Make sure you give some time and fry them on medium or low flame.
Serve with steamed rice and ghee. They also taste amazing as an accompaniment to rice and daal.

Originally from Kolkata, Srilagna Majumdar is a Delhi-based editor, researcher and archivist. She works in the fields of education, public history and culinary history. Follow her on Instagram.

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