Chakka, jaca, jackfruit……

Jackfruit is one of those fruits whose seeds also can be used in a variety of dishes. My mom makes a yummy roast (semi-gravy), replicating chicken gravy with it. So when I bought a few jackfruit pieces for my son, I decided to use the seeds in a fry. Why not the whole fruit, you ask? - well, if I was in my hometown, it would come in no form other than a full jack fruit. Here, though there are shops which sell the whole fruit, cleaning and disposing off the rest after the fruit arils and seeds are taken is a trouble.

Did you know that jackfruit gets its name from Portugese word jaca, which was derived from its Malayalam name of the fruit, chakka? One more reason to be proud of my mother tongue J

So I checked the recipe with my mom and made my own version (yeah, as usual ;)). Since my family preferred it to be a dry dish, I made it as per the recipe below:

Recipe

Ingredients

Jackfruit seeds – 10 to 15 Nos.
Potato – 1no. medium sized (optional)

Onion – 2 nos. (1 roughly chopped, 1 thinly diced)
Green chilli – 1 no. (chopped)
Ginger Garlic paste – 1 teaspoon
Tomato – 1no. (finely chopped)
Cumin  seeds – 1 tsp
Chilli powder – 1 tsp
Coriander powder – 2 tsp
Pepper powder – ½  tsp
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Coriander leaves – few sprigs, finely chopped
Salt to taste
Asafetida – a pinch
Oil – 2 tbsp

Preparation

• Pressure cook the jackfruit seeds with a bit of salt, turmeric and asafetida. If you are adding potato, add after 1 whistle or cook it separately. 
• Tip: Upto how many whistles should the cooking happen really depends on the texture of the seeds. If they are really dry, you would need upto 3 whistles). 
• While the seeds are cooking, grind together the roughly chopped onion, chilli and coriander powder into a paste.
• Heat oil in a pan. 
• Add cumin seeds and ginger garlic paste. 
• Once the raw smell from the paste goes off, add the cut onions and the chopped green chilli. 
• Add salt (careful with the quantity as we already added some salt while cooking the jackfruit seeds).
• When the onions become translucent, add the tomato. Let it cook till it starts releasing oil. 
• Add pepper powder.
• Add the ground paste and mix well. This needs to cook for some time till all the raw pungent smell of the onions go off from the paste. If you prefer to, you can add more oil.  
• To this, add the cooked potato and jackfruit seeds. Mix well with the masalas. Let the mix get to a beautiful roasted form.
• Tip: You can add a little water at this stage if you need this dish in a gravy form – best if you can use the leftover water from cooking the seeds.
• Add chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves.

Garnishing Note: Served with hot rice or appam or roti, this is a warm dish that will fill your heart.