Passionate about Life 'n Spice...: Jackfruit

Gujje Palya

There are times when I come back from work and wonder “What will I blog about today?” Suddenly I feel I have nothing left to write and panic strikes me. Just the thought of running out of blog contents is one horrifying experience for me.

But usually everything turns out all right when I reach home and read the comments on my current and previous posts (yeah, yeah… I do read my archived posts and comments), I get ideas and often inspiration to write my next post. But today here I am sitting cross legged with my lappy on my lap and staring blankly at one of the photos I took last week and I have nothing write about it!!! I have lot to share about this particular recipe which takes me down the memory lane whenever I cook it but I just can’t seem to put it into words. I can think about it but I simply can’t seem to write about it.

Yeah, this is one of those days where I don’t see any ‘bloggable’ (hell, that’s not even a word!!!) thoughts to share with you all. This is one of those days where I would like you to write to me about your thoughts about my blog. While going through all those comments I couldn’t help but wonder why people visit my blog? Is it because of all that lengthy prefaces (I seriously can’t imagine people reading my rants), or recipes (hmm…most likely as I am still getting few recipe requests), or photos (really?), or god knows what (that will be really interesting thing to know)!!! I would love to know why you visit Monsoon Spice, what makes you spend your precious time going through my posts? What is it that makes you come back again and go though my posts (hopefully if you are not put off by my rants and lengthy posts). So tell me whatever you want to say… I am all ears ;)

Here is the recipe for Gujje Palya/Tender Jackfruit Stir Fry which is one of my childhood favourites. Gujje is a Tulu word for Tender Jackfruit which is often used in South Canara in cooking savoury dishes. My all time favourite is Gujje Kodhel and Gujje Palya. Me and my siblings would always end up having competition as who got highest number of ‘eyes’ which are nothing but tender jackfruit seeds. This stir fry is one of best example of delicious Udupi-Mangalorean cuisine as very ingredients are used to bring out the true taste of this sticky vegetable/fruit. This almost bland tasting tender jackfruit transforms into delicious side dish or simple snack when cooked with crunchy red onion with enough heat from green chillies. I used canned tender Jackfruits here which tasted really good but it tastes best when cooked with fresh ones.

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Gujje Palya (Tender Jackfruit Stir Fry)
Prep Time: 5 mins (When using canned ones)
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Serves: 2-4

Ingredients:
3-4 cups fresh or 1 can Tender Jackfruit, drained and rinsed
1 medium Red Onion, finely chopped
2-3 Green Chillies, slit (adjust acc to taste)
½ tsp Turmeric Powder
½ tbsp Jaggery (adjust acc to taste)
¼ cup fresh/frozen Coconut
Salt to taste

For Tempering:
1 tsp Black Mustard Seeds
1 tsp Urad Dal
2 tsp Channa Dal
¼ tsp Hing/Asafoetida
1-2 Dry Red Chillies, halved
Few Curry Leaves
1 tbsp Oil, preferably Coconut Oil

Gujje Palya

Method:

Chop washed canned young jackfruit pieces into small pieces (about ½ cm slices) and keep them aside. If using fresh ones, then cut them into big chunks and cook them covered with little salt , turmeic powder, jaggery and 1-1½ cup of water till tender. It will take around 10-15 mins if using pressure cooker and little longer if cooking in a vessel. Once they are cooked and cool enough to handle, cut them into ½ cm slices and keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. When they start to pop and splutter, add channa dal, urad dal, broken red chillies and hing. Sauté it till dals turn golden brown.
Now add chopped onions, curry leaves and slit green chillies. Sauté it for a minute or two till onion turn transluscent.
Now add chopped tender jackfruit, turmeric powder, jaggery and salt to taste and mix well. Add ½ cup of water and cover and cook for about 10-12 mins till all the flavours blend well and jack fruit is cooked properly. Make sure to check in between so that the Palya doesn’t stick to the bottom of pan.
Cook uncovered for another 2-3 minutes till all the water is evaporated. Switch off the gas and mix in fresh/frozen coconut. Serve it hot with Rosematta Rice or any rice of your choice or Chapatti or simply serve it as a snack and enjoy.

Gujje Palya

Reminder: WBB-Summer Feast

For this edition of WBB, your challenge is to cook anything with summer fruits and vegetables. Yes, the theme is WBB-Summer Feast. Go to your town/city’s Farmer’s Market and pick fresh season’s produce and make your favourite breakfast or brunch and join in the Summer Feast.

Deadline: 31st July, 2008

Please go through the guidelines and include all the required information in your post and mail when sending me your entry. Don't forget to add Your Name, Your Blog Name, Name of the Dish you cooked, Perm Link of the entry, Perm Link of original recipe along with the gorgeous Photo of final dish.

Click Here or on the logo to find out more information on this event.

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Jackfruit… There is something about jackfruit which fascinates me all the time. The huge spiky hard exterior which contains sweet golden yellow sheaths has always been one of my favorite fruits. I remember the days when my sister, brother and myself would always find some reason to stay away from volunteering to pare and seed the jackfruit. Once the sticky glue was removed and the golden flesh is separated, we kids would happily go and sit cross legged on the floor next to the big cane basket which would be filled with sweet jackfruits and happily eat one after the other. Amma would sit there peeling sheaths of fruit and tell us her childhood memories where she with her sisters and brothers and some dozens of cousins would gather and have fun while peeling jackfruit from its sticky sheaths and burn the jackfruit seeds in open fire. Although I am lucky to have many cousins, it is no where close to what my parents have. I can very well imagine the fun my parents had while growing up with their siblings and cousins in a large joint family.
My amma makes many dishes using both raw and ripe jackfruits. Apart from Kodhel(coconut based sambar from Mangalore), Majjige Huli(buttermilk based) and Playa(stir fried vegetables) the raw jackfruit is used in preparing pakodas and also they were preserved in salt water to make Rotti, Playa and Sambar and also a crunchy munchy called Undla Kalu. the ripe jackfruit is used to make Kottige(steam cooked rice cake using banana leaves), Payasa, Berati (Jackfruit Jam) and Papads. The seeds of the jackfruits were used in Palya and Laddu.

First when I heard about this months Jhiva ingredient I wanted to make traditional, authentic Mangalorean dish called Kottige/Kadubu which is very similar to Genasale, steam cooked rice cake with coconut and jaggery. I couldn’t find any banana leaves here and was not feeling very adventurous to use aluminum foil in place of them. So ended up making Jackfruit Idli. I used same ingredients used to make Jackfruit Kottige and steam cooked them in Idli stand. Served these sweet idilies with sour and spicy Raw Mango Chutney. Here is my entry for this month’s JFI-Jackfruit which is hosted by daring and darling couple Jai and Bee of Jugalbandi fame. I am contributing the recipe of Mango chuteny for this month's AFAM-Mango which is hosted by lovely Deepa of Recipes 'n More. Thank you Ashakka for reminding me:)

Jackfruit Idli with Mango Chuteny

Jackfruit/Halasina Hannu Idli
Prep Time: 15-20 mins (excluding soaking time)
Cooking Time: 20-25 mins
Serves: 4-5

Ingredients:
2 cups Rice
2 cups Jackfruit, cut into small pieces
½ cup grated Coconut
½-¾ cup Jaggery (Acc to taste)
¼ tsp Cardamom Powder (Optional)
¼ tsp Cooking Soda
½ tsp Salt

Jackfruit Idli with Mango Chuteny

Method:

Soak rice in water for 1-2 hours or overnight.
Grind the rice with freshly grated coconut, salt, cooking soda and jaggery to smooth paste. The paste should be of dosa batter consistency.
To this add chopped jackfruit and cardamom powder and mix well.
Now either you can steam cook using banana leaves or using Idli stand. If you are using banana leaves follow the steps showed for Genasale.
If you are using idli stand, grease the idli plate with oil/ghee and pour a ladle full of batter and steam cook them in pressure cooker for 10-15 minutes.
Let it cool for few minutes before serving the idlis with spicy mango chutney and ghee.

A closer look at Jackfruit Idli

Best side dish for these Jackfruit Idli is spicy and tangy Raw Mango Chutney. It's a marriage made in heaven. Here is the recipe for making Mango Chuteny.

Mango Chutney
Prep Time: 5-10 mins
Cooking Time: -
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:
1 small Raw Mango
1 tsp Mustard Seeds, lightly roasted
2-3 Green Chillies
½ inch Ginger
1 cup Grated Coconut
Salt to taste

Mango Chuteny

Method:
Peel the mango discarding its pit and cut it into chunks.
Combine all the ingredients and grind it to smooth paste.
You can add more chillies if you prefer very spicy chutney to go with sweet Jackfruit Idli.

Jackfruit Idli with Mango Chuteny

Did You Know?
The jackfruit is believed indigenous to the rain forests of the Western Ghats of India.
Male and female flowers are borne in separate flower-heads.
Jackfruit is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world, reaching 80 pounds in weight and up to 36 inches long and 20 inches in diameter.
There may be 100 or up to 500 seeds in a single fruit, which are viable for no more than three or four days.
There are two main varieties. In one, the fruits have small, fibrous, soft, mushy, but very sweet carpels with a texture somewhat akin to a raw oysters. The other variety is crisp and almost crunchy though not quite as sweet. This form is the more important commercially and is more palatable to western tastes.
(Source:www.crfg.org)