1-in-3 Jackfruit

Jackfruit – Aptly called as ‘Gentle Giant’ by Indira. You should be aware that I was on a jackfruit hunt sometime back. Yes, I did make that dreadful trip to the Asian store. Though I couldn’t find incense sticks in the nearby aisles, I went on with the search. All for this month’s JFI hosted by Jugalbandi. I was being modest and searched the freezer section for frozen jackfruit pieces. Nope, no luck. Alright, no JFI entry from me this month :-(.

Suddenly a tap from my husband. I find him pointing his finger in one direction. To my surprise, there it is – A whole jackfruit. I was enthralled by what I was looking at for two reasons. One, I will be able to participate in this month’s JFI. Two, its been a long time since I had jackfruit. Armed with the 15-pound fruit and few cans of green jackfruit, I came home with a triumphant smile. I can now post not 1, but 1-in-3 on jackfruit. Gini, I hope this answers your question :-).

I didn’t know that there were two types of jackfruit until I read Injipennu’s post. Luckily, the fruit I bought was the varikkachakka variety, it was sweet as honey. Working on the fruit was fun too (Of course, with gloves on). The whole house was filled with the sweet smell of jackfruit.

I am not going to give you the specifics about jackfruit, its all here. I want to thank Jai & Bee (not only for the incense sticks idea) for instigating me to go look for Jackfruit. If not for you I wouldn’t have had even stepped in that direction. Thanks guys!

My entry for this month’s JFI is Jackfruit Halwa. This recipe is from my cookbook encyclopedia Samaithu Paar by Meenakshi Ammal. This halwa is not the typical chewy type, but a slightly crunchy one due to the sugar syrup, yet tasty.

Ingredients

Jackfruit – 1 cup, cubed into small pieces
Sugar – 1 ½ cups
Cashew nuts – ¼ cup, halved
Ghee – 2 tbsp
Saffron
Elaichi or Cardamom – ½ tsp, powdered
Edible camphor – A mustard seed size

Method

Mix sugar and ¼ cup of water and make a sugar syrup until it reaches one-string consistency. Add the jackfruit pieces and stir until the fruit gets cooked and blends with the sugar syrup. The mixture should be thick if you want to make pieces.

Roast cashew nuts in a tsp of ghee until golden brown. Add this to the jackfruit mixture along with the rest of the ghee and saffron. Take the halwa off the stove and mix elaichi and camphor.

Grease a plate with ghee and pour the halwa onto it. Cut into pieces while it is still warm.