Tag Archives: Jackfruit

Jackfruit Fritters

Earlier this week, I shared my mother’s recipe for jackfruit stir-fry. Today, I am sharing another one of her jackfruit recipes – jackfruit fritters. I am bringing a few over to Angie‘s Fiesta Friday #111, co-hosted by Naina and Julianna.
Jackfruit fritterGiven that I have been listening to mostly Sufi songs this week, I decided to share another Sufi song that I enjoyed listening to. This clip is also from MTV Coke Studio’s YouTube channel. The musicians are Ustad Raees Khan (sitar) and Abida Parveen.

Happy Fiesta Friday!

Jackfruit Fritters

  • Servings: 10
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • Jackfruit – ½ cup, finely chopped
  • Flour – ¼ cup
  • Onion – 2 tbsp, chopped
  • Chilli – 1 or 2
  • Breadcrumbs – 3 tbsp
  • Curry powder – 1 tsp
  • Pepper and Salt, to taste
  • Oil

Method

  1. Fry the chopped onion and chilli in a pan.
  2. Add the finely chopped jackfruit pieces to the pan and stir-fry until cooked.
  3. Mix the flour, breadcrumbs, curry powder, salt and pepper in a bowl.
  4. Add the fried jackfruit, onion and chilli mix to the flour mix.
  5. Prepare the fritter dough by adding little water to the mix.
  6. Divide the dough into 10 balls.
  7. Flatten each ball and deep fry, flipping over the fritters so that they are browned uniformly on both sides.
  8. Serve immediately with rice or on its own.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Jackfruit stir-fry

I have always liked jackfruit. There was even a tree at my grandmother’s house so we were treated to the fruit on our rare visits there during my childhood. The tree is no longer there now but when I come across jackfruit, it takes me back to my grandmother’s home. Due to the sugar-free eating that my parents follow at home, we no longer buy the ripe fruit. However, on rare occasions, my mother buys the unripe fruit to cook polos. Recently, she made a tasty stir-fry and some fritters so I am sharing the jackfruit stir-fry recipe today.
Jackfruit stir fryI’d like to share a song that I came across on the Coke studio youtube channel and which I enjoyed very much. This song is an adaptation of a poem by the 13th century mystic poet, Amir Khusrow, who is also regarded as the father of qawwali. Here, it is sung by two contemporary famous qawwali musicians – Abida Parveen and Rahet Fateh Ali Khan.

Have a lovely week and hope you enjoy the song and the recipe!

Jackfruit stir-fry

  • Servings: 3
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • Jackfruit – ½ cup, finely chopped
  • Onion – 2 tbsp, chopped
  • Chilli – 1, red
  • Curry leaves – 1 sprig
  • Fennel seeds –
  • Turmeric – pinch
  • Coconut – 2 or 3 tbsp, freshly scraped
  • Curry powder – 1 or 2 tsp
  • Salt, to taste
  • Oil

Method

  1. Boil the chopped jackfruit, with a pinch of turmeric and salt, for around 10 – 15 mins. Drain and keep aside.
  2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and lightly fry the chopped onion, chilli, curry leaves and fennel seeds for a couple of minutes before adding the cooked jackfruit pieces. Stir fry for a few minutes.
  3. Add the freshly scraped/ grated coconut to the pan together with the curry powder. Mix well.
  4. Serve warm with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Odiyal Kool

Today is my mother’s birthday and I felt like re-sharing one of my mother’s favourite recipes. Odiyal Kool is a traditional dish from north Sri Lanka and can be made as a vegetarian or non-vegetarian version. Today’s recipe is a vegetarian dish. OK1 For today’s music feature, I wish to share some song clips from youTube from the official vevo site of one of my favourite singers – Andrea Bocelli. The first is a music video of the song ‘Canto Della Terra’. The second song ‘Con Te Partiro’ is from a 2011 concert. I liked more an earlier version, where he sings with Sarah Brightman, but could not find it on the official site. The last clip is the music video of the song with Laura Pausini ‘Dare to Live’. Hope you enjoy the music and the recipe! Ok2

Odiyal Kool

  • Servings: 8-10
  • Difficulty: average
  • Print
Ingredients

  • Odiyal Flour – 1 cup
  • Chopped mixed vegetables (brinjal/ katharikkai, jackfruit seeds/ palakottai, yardlong beans/ paithangai, small green leaves/ pasali keerai or murungai ilai, manioc, ash plantain) – 100g each
  • Boiled rice – ½ cup
  • Dried red chillies – 5- 10, according to your taste
  • Cumin seeds – 1 tbsp
  • Pepper powder – 1tbsp
  • Tamarind extract – ½ cup
  • Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
  • Salt to taste
  • Water – 1 1/2 litres

Method:

  1. Dry grind the cumin seeds, red chillies and pepper and keep aside.
  2. Boil the vegetables in a pot with half litre water.
  3. Add another litre of water, along with the tamarind extract.
  4. As the water comes to a boil, slowly stir in the odiyal flour, avoiding lumps.
  5. Add the boiled rice to the pot.
  6. Add the ground spice mixture and the turmeric powder to the pot and salt to taste. Let it come to a boil.
  7. You can add a little water to adjust the consistency to your liking, e.g. if the water has dried up or you prefer a watery Kool.
  8. Serve hot in medium-sized bowls.

Recipe Source: Raji Thillainathan.

Hathmalu

Today’s guest blogger is renowned independent film-maker Asoka Handagama. His movies have garnered much critical acclaim and have been screened at numerous major international film festivals (Toronto, Edinburgh, Tokyo etc.) around the world. His most recent movie ‘Ini, Avan’ had its world premiere at the ACID programme in the Cannes festival in 2012. Asoka is currently working on his newest film project which he plans to partially fund through crowd-funding. If you would like to participate in Sri Lanka’s first partially crowd-funded movie production, do check out the film’s Crimso page. 

Today, Asoka shares his favourite dish, Hathmalu – a specialty dish made during the Sri Lankan New Year/ Avurudhu/ Puthaandu.

Hath Malu ( A curry made of Seven vegetable/ingredients )

This traditional curry dish is prepared for an auspicious AVURUDU meal; popular in Sabaragamuva province in Sri Lanka. Uniqueness in this dish is that it is not prepared for any other occasion than AVURUDU.  It is so yummy that you can swallow a whole load of milk-rice in a few seconds!

Hathmalu

Hathmalu Recipe

Ingredients

  • Cashew Nuts (raw un roasted)

And any six (or seven) of the following:

  • Egg plant/ aubergines
  • Jackfruit Seeds
  • Snake beans
  • Sweet potato
  • Sweet potato baby leaves or pumpkin leaves
  • Desha-ala (indigenous potato)
  • Desha-ala leaf stems
  • ‘Ambul’ banana (unripe bananas)

For the curry: 

  • Turmeric
  • Chili powder (un roasted)
  • ‘Thuna paha’ local spice mix such as cinnamon, cardamom, cloves (un roasted)
  • Salt
  • Red onions
  • Green chili
  • Curry leaves
  • Coconut milk: thick cream (first squeeze) and diluted (second squeeze)

Method:
Chop aubergines and other vegetables and potatoes into 1cm x 1cm x 1cm cubes. Add the seven main ingredients along with salt, spice mix, curry leaves, chili powder, red onions, green chili, turmeric and diluted coconut milk to a (preferably) clay pot. Place on stove and allow to cook slowly on low heat until all ingredients have cooked and softened (15-20 minutes). Then add thick coconut milk and (on medium heat) allow to simmer until the curry thickens and take it off the heat.

Serve curry with milk rice.

hathmalu2Recipe source: Asoka Handagama.

 

Jackfruit Cutlets

Today’s recipe is that of a cutlet my mother made recently. She likes experimenting with her cutlet mixtures and this time, she tried jackfruit and the result was delicious.

Jackfruit Cutlets

Time taken: 40 mins

Makes 4

Jackfruit Cutlets

Ingredients:

  • Raw, unripe jackfruit – 4 or 5 pieces
  • Onion – 1 tbsp, finely chopped
  • Chillies – ½ tsp, finely chopped
  • Pepper – 1 tsp
  • Fennel seeds – ½ tsp
  • Ginger – ½ “, finely chopped
  • Garlic – 2 cloves, finely chopped
  • Multi-purpose flour, for light batter
  • Bread crumbs, for rolling the cutlets
  • Low fat oil, for deep-frying

Method:

  1. Boil the jackfruit with salt for about 15 to 20 mins.
  2. Chop it and then coarsely grind it to get about ½ cup of the ground, cooked jackfruit. Transfer to a mixing bowl.
  3. Add the finely chopped onion, garlic, ginger, chillies as well as the pepper and fennel seeds to the mixing bowl. Mix well. Divide the seasoned jackfruit mixture into four balls.
  4. Make a light batter by mixing ½ cup of water with some multi-purpose flour.
  5. Dip the cutlet balls in the batter and then roll in the breadcrumbs, before deep-frying till the cutlets are golden brown.
  6. Serve hot with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Odiyal Kool

Decided to take a break this week and re-post a few recipes from the initial days of this blog.

This is a traditional recipe from the North of Sri Lanka made from a palmyrah product. My mother tells me her grandmother used to make this for them on special occasions. While this is typically a spicy sea-food dish, it can be a vegan dish if one omits the seafood.

So, I am sharing my great-grandmother’s odiyal kool recipe, as remembered by my mother.

The base for this kool is ‘Odiyal’, a healthy and nutritious root that is dried before making into a flour. One can purchase the ‘odiyal flour’ from Katpaham marketing outlets around Sri Lanka, run by the Palmyrah Development Board, and might be found at Sri Lankan stores outside of Sri Lanka. However, if ‘odiyal flour’ cannot be obtained, corn flour can be tried out as a substitute.

Odiyal Kool

Cooking time – 45 minutes

Serves: 8 – 10

Ingredients

  • Odiyal or Odiyal Flour – 1 cup
  • Chopped mixed vegetables (brinjal/ katharikkai, jackfruit seeds/ palakottai, yardlong beans/ paithangai, small green leaves/ pasali keerai or murungai ilai, manioc, ash plantain) – 100g each
  • Chopped mixed seafood (prawns, crab meat, squids etc.) – 100g each, omit if vegetarian
  • Boiled rice – ½ cup
  • Dried red chillies – 5- 10, depending on your desired level of hot spicy
  • Cumin seeds – 1 tbsp, can add another tablespoon if you like it really spicy
  • Pepper powder – 1tbsp, can add another tablespoon if you like it really spicy
  • Tamarind extract – ½ cup
  • Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
  • Salt to taste
  • Water – 2 litres

Method:

  1. Grind the odiyal into flour or use the ready-made odiyal flour.
  2. Dry grind the cumin seeds, red chillies and pepper and keep aside.
  3. Boil the vegetables in a pot with half litre water.
  4. Boil the seafood in a separate pot with half litre water.
  5. Then, mix the boiled vegetables and seafood and add another litre of water, along with the tamarind extract.
  6. As the water comes to a boil, slowly stir in the odiyal flour, avoiding lumps.
  7. Add the boiled rice to the pot.
  8. Add the ground spice mixture and the turmeric powder to the pot and salt to taste. Let it come to a boil.
  9. You can add a little water to adjust the consistency to your liking, e.g. if the water has dried up or you prefer a watery Kool.
  10. Serve hot in medium-sized bowls.

Recipe Source: Raji Thillainathan.

Polos Embulla and Kos Melluma

Today’s guest blogger is Maheesa Dayananda, UNDP project staff from Polonnaruwa district. He will be sharing his mother’s recipes for a couple of his favourite dishes.

These are two of my favorite curries and around once in two weeks we cook one of these at home. These two curries should be served with rice and are very popular (especially Polos Embulla) among Sinhalese not only in Polonnaruwa but also in other areas too. Also, these curries come from few generations back. I can remember my grand mother also cooked these curries.

Polos embulla 2(a) Polos Embulla

Time taken    – 75 minutes

Serves             – 05

Polos Embulla

INGREDIENTS

  • Baby jack                         15 pieces (250 gm)
  • Goraka/Garcinia Cambogia 04 pieces
  • Garlic                                 04 cloves
  • Pepper                              01 teaspoon
  • Cardamom/ enasal        ½ teaspoon
  • Curry Powder                  02 teaspoon, roasted
  • Chilli Powder                   02 teaspoon
  • Turmeric Powder           ½ teaspoon
  • Coconut                           01 nut
  • Curry leaves/ Rampe      as per required
  • Salt                                     to taste
  • Cinnamon                         a bit
  • Water                                 as per required

METHOD

  1. Removing the outer peel of the baby jack, cut it into fairly big pieces, wash well and put them in an earthen vessel.
  2. Mix the pieces of baby jack with chilli powder, curry powder, turmeric powder and salt.
  3. Add some goraka.
  4. Mix crushed pepper, cinnamon and cardamom with the pieces of baby jack.
  5. Pour coconut milk in to the earthen vessel until the baby jack pieces are just covered and cook them till most of the liquid dries up. As the curry should have a little gravy, remove from heat before the gravy completely dries up.
  6. Note: Avoid dipping spoons which have been used for other curries, in polos embulla curry, to keep the stuff fresh for many days.

(b) Kos Melluma

Time taken    45 minutes

Serves             05

Kos INGREDIENTS

  • Pieces of jack                        250 gm
  • Coriander                              02 teaspoon
  • Cumin Seeds                        01 teaspoon
  • Sweet Cumin/ star anise  01 teaspoon
  • Green chillies                        03 – 04
  • Coconut                                ½ nut, scraped
  • Coconut oil                          04 teaspoon
  • Mustard                               01 teaspoon
  • Turmeric powder              as per required
  • Curry leaves                        as per required

METHOD

  1. Remove the core/ seeds from the jack-fruit pieces nut and cut them in to small pieces.
  2. Crush about 10 seeds and remove the peel covering the seed.
  3. Place the chopped jack-fruit and crushed seeds in a pan and add turmeric & water as required.
  4. Cover the pan and cook the jack-fruit.
  5. After the jack-fruit is cooked, add curry powder, curry leaves, scraped coconut and kochchi or green chilies and let it simmer together.
  6. Heat some coconut oil in another pan and fry some mustard seeds.
  7. Transfer the cooked jack-fruit with all its seasonings to the pan with the mustard seeds and temper it for a few minutes.
  8. Serve hot with rice.

Recipe source: Maheesa Dayananda.

Palakottai curry

This is one of the ways my mother cooks jackfruit seeds.

It is difficult to cut up fresh, ripe jackfruit. When you keep it for 2 to 3 days, it becomes easier to chop and peel the outer layers and remove the fruit. As you pull out each of the sweet and ripe yellow fruit, cut a slit and remove the seed inside and collect in a separate bowl.

Palakkottai curry

Time taken: 20 – 30 mins

Serves 3

Palakkottai curry

Ingredients:

  • Palakkotai (Jackfruit seeds) – 1 cup
  • Coconut milk – 2 ½ cups (thin consistency)
  • Onion – ½ chopped
  • Curry leaves
  • Curry powder – 1 tsp
  • Salt, to taste

Method:

  1. Wash and clean the jackfruit seeds.
  2. Put the cleaned jackfruit seeds in a pan and add 2 ½ cups of thin coconut milk. Also add the chopped onion, curry leaves and the curry powder and salt.
  3. Cook for about 20 minutes until the curry thickens and the seeds are cooked and soft enough.
  4. Serve with rice or pittu.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Kiri Koss

Today’s guest blogger is Indika and her favourite recipe is Kiri Koss.

Kiri Koss

Cooking time: 30 mins

Serves 5

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups of unripe Jack-fruit
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 2 green chillies
  • 2 cups coconut milk
  • curry leaves
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp curry powder
  • 1 tsp chillie powder
  • salt to taste

Method:

  1. Clean and de-seed the the Jack-fruit. Cut the Jack-fruit into thin long stripes. Clean the seeds and cut them into two.
  2. Mix the Jack-fruit, the seeds and all the other ingredients and the the coconut milk in a pan.
  3. Put the pan on a medium flame, cover and cook for about 30 mins, until the jack-fruit is well done.

Recipe source: Indika K.

Polos and Kos Mallung

Jackfruit, both the unripe and ripe fruit, is very popular in Sri Lanka. The unripe jackfruit is cooked in different styles across the country. My mother and I like the Southern style. My mother’s unripe jackfruit dishes therefore are a slightly adapted version of her friend’s recipes for polos and kos mallung.  While I will certainly post the long and traditional way of cooking polos when someone sends me the recipe for it, today I would like to share the adapted recipes that my mother uses.

(a) Polos

Cooking time: 1 hour

Serves 4

Polos

Ingredients

  • Unripe jackfruit/ kos/ palakkai – 2 ½ cup (250 g), chopped and cleaned after peeling off skin
  • Chillies – 2
  • Coriander seeds – 1 tsp
  • Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
  • Cloves – 3
  • Cinnamon – small piece
  • Cardamon – 3
  • Ginger – ½”
  • Garlic – 3 – 4 cloves
  • Curry leaves – 1 sprig
  • Rampe leaf/ pandan
  • Onion – ½, large and chopped
  • Freshly scraped coconut – ¼ cup
  • Salt, to taste – 1 tsp
  • Tamarind extract – ¼ cup or Goraka/ Garcinia Cambogia – small piece
  • Water – 1 ½ cups

Method:

  1. Put the cleaned and chopped up raw jackfruit in a pot. Add 1 ½ cups of water and cook for about 15 – 20 minutes till the water dries up. Remove from heat and drain off the water.
  2. Dry roast the chillies, coriander and cumin, grind them and add to the pot.
  3. Crush the ginger and garlic and add the ginger-garlic paste to the pot.
  4. Add the cloves, cinnamon and cardamom together with the chopped onion, curry leaves and rampe leaf to the pot.
  5. Blend ¼ cup of freshly scraped coconut with 2 cups of water. Strain and add the coconut milk to the pot.
  6. Add the goraka piece or tamarind extract to the pot.
  7. Add salt to taste and mix all ingredients in the pot well.
  8. Put the pot back on the stove and cook for 10 minutes.
  9. Then, reduce to low heat and simmer for about 30 mins. If the ingredients are scaled up, the simmering time also needs to be increased. For e.g. if 1 Kg of jackfruit is being cooked, the simmering time will need to be at least 2 hours.
  10. If you prefer having more gravy in your polos curry, add a little coconut milk and cook for a few minutes more before removing from heat.
  11. Serve with rice.

(b) Kos Mallung

Cooking time – 25 mins

Serves 4

Kos Mallung

Ingredients:

  • Young, unripe jackfruit/ kos/ palakkai – 2 cups, finely chopped after peeling off the skin and cleaning it
  • Salt – ½ tsp + more, as per taste
  • Pepper – ½ tsp
  • Turmeric – ½ tsp
  • Garlic – 4 – 5 cloves, chopped
  • Green chillies – 2
  • Onion – 1, small, chopped
  • Curry leaves – 1 sprig
  • Scraped coconut – 1 tbsp (optional)
  • Lime juice – 1 tsp
  • Low fat oil (canola or sunflower) – 1 tbsp
  • Water – ½ cup

Method:

  1. Marinate the finely chopped unripe jackfruit flesh and seed with ½ tsp salt, pepper and turmeric powder. Keep aside for about 10 minutes.
  2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and sauté the chopped garlic, chillies, onion and curry leaves for 2 minutes.
  3. Add the marinated finely chopped jackfruit to the pan. Mix well.
  4. Add ½ cup water and test for salt, adding more if required. Cover and cook on low heat for 10 minutes.
  5. Uncover after 10 minutes and if there is still water in the pan, cook till the water dries up.
  6. If you like adding scraped coconut, you can add the freshly scraped coconut now and remove from heat.
  7. Add 1 tsp lime juice. Mix well and serve hot with rice.

Recipe source: Lalitha Senadheera and Raji Thillainathan.