Raw Jackfruit Curry

We like to devour the tasteful pulps from a fully ripe jackfruits and discard everything else. But do you know that most parts of a raw unripe jackfruit can be cooked as normal vegetable other than the thorny outer skin?

Here is a simple recipe to make tasty curry from raw unripe jackfruits.

If you have jackfruit tree in your backyard, you can harvest a baby jackfruit or buy one from the vegetable market. A beetle or some insect has damaged the stalk of one of our young baby jackfruit. So I harvested the same to make jackfruit curry.

• Cut the baby jackfruit in half. The fruit contains a sticky sap. Apply oil on your hands and the knife before cutting
• Using an oiled knife, trim away the thorny skin.
• Cut the skinned fruit into further small pieces.

• The jackfruit contains a center stalk which is not edible.
• Using the knife remove the center stalk from all the pieces
• Cut the fruit into small pieces of 3/4 inches in size
• Wash and clean the cut pieces and drain out the water

• Transfer the cut pieces into cooking vessel
• Add about two teaspoons of turmeric powder
• Add salt a little more than required. Most of the salt will be drained out with the water used for boiling
• Mix everything together

• Add clean water to the vessel so that it submerges all pieces in the vessel
• Boil the pieces over medium fire.
• You can cover the vessel with a lid during boiling
• Check to see if the pieces are completely cooked.

• Once the jackfruit pieces are completely cooked and soft to touch, remove from fire.
• Drain out the excess water using a strainer.
• Leave the pieces in the strainer for about 15 to 20 minutes so that all excess water drains down.

In the meantime grate half a coconut using a coconut grater and keep aside.

Also keep the following spices ready in a small dish

• Two teaspoons of red chili powder (Add as per your own taste)
• one and half teaspoons of Cumin seed powder
• One teaspoon of Fennel seed powder
• A pinch of Asafoetida powder

• Heat a tablespoon of any cooking oil in a frying pan
• When a oil is hot add a teaspoon of mustard seeds mixed with split black gram lentils
• When the mustard seeds start cracking, add a bunch of curry leaves

• Now you can add the spices to the hot oil in the pan
• Mix them well using a ladle till the spices are blended with the oil in the pan.
• Add the boiled jackfruit pieces to the pan and mix well

• Add the grated coconut to the pan and mix with the jackfruit pieces.
• Check for salt as some of the salt might have been drained out with water. Add if required
• Remove from heat and transfer to a serving dish.

The baby jackfruit curry has an excellent taste. You can eat it with rice, chapaties or bread