Jack be nimble………put to the test

Let me give you a little background.

Vasantha mami, a person whom I TOTALLY adore lives with her daughter in the neighborhood. In their huge urban backyard amongst many delightful plants is a jackfruit tree that has several fruits ripening on it. On a recent visit with them, I was the recipient of ¼ of a fruit (each fruit can weigh up to 30-60kgs when fully ripe) since this was a “smaller” one, the piece weighed maybe 2-3 kgs. After the fruit was cut open we realized that it was not completely ripe!

Here is my 10 year old son holding on to a fruit on the tree

Once cut we had to either consume it or throw it away……(not an option for me) so in this semi ripe stage I decided to make a dish with it and decided to blog about it anyway (I’m not sure how many people in the virtual world have access to this strictly tropical fruit found only in parts of south east Asia) it was an experiment with a happy ending. The dish tasted delightful and had an interesting texture to - not crisp or soft, but pleasingly mealy, so here goes.

Jackfruit Subzi
Ingredients
1 kg peeled jackfruit (about 12-15 individual segments)
3 medium sized potato, peeled and cubed into 2 inch pieces
2 – 3 medium sized onions, finely chopped
3 – 4 medium tomatoes, chopped
3 – 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
Small knob of ginger, chopped
2 green chilies, slit down the center
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
½ tsp red chili powder
¼ tsp turmeric powder
Handful of coriander leaves, chopped
Juice of one lime
2-4 tsp oil
1 – 2 cups water
Salt to taste

Method
Peel the jackfruit and separate the individual sections. Remove the small seed in the center of the fruit, wash, chop into cubes and set aside. Heat oil, add the garlic, onion, ginger, salt and cook until the onion turns deep pink/red. Add tomatoes and all the dry powders and cook until pulpy. Add the jackfruit, potato water, cover and cook on a low flame until both the jackfruit and potatoes are softened. Add lime juice and coriander leaves, serve warm.

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This recipe has been submitted for the event Green Gourmet, created and hosted by Preeti of Write Food