Green Jackfruit Taquitos

Growing up with young green jackfruit as part of a vegetarian diet, I never gave it much thought, never felt it was supposed to be exotic or that it had the potential to stand in for meat. It was a fantastic element to be relished on its own right, especially in south Indian style cuisine that I was nurtured on.

There are quite a few jackfruit recipes shared here so far, and I've been finding ways to use them in more unconventional dishes as well.

Jackfruit is quite popular in Asian cuisine, especially in Indian cuisine. Not just the ripe fruit used for desserts, and chips, but particularly the young green jackfruit that is treated as a vegetable.

My mom's specialty is "Idi Chakkai" - a Palakkad term for smashed young green jackfruit dish flavored with coconut and chilies, and tempered with mustard seeds and curry leaves. I could not have enough of it when I was young.

Jackfruit seed - nicknamed "jacknut" - is another favorite at home, quite a special treat, even though tons of these get discarded every jackfruit season.

The raw green jackfruit when smashed into coarse chunks have the texture of shredded chicken. Being mild in flavor, these raw green jackfruit chunks lend themselves to a variety of deep flavoring, and quite easily make a good meat imitator.

In local Asian grocery stores, various brands of canned young green jackfruit are available at a reasonable price. I prefer the ones canned in water rather than in brine. But, the brined ones are not too salty so they work well in savory dishes.

I've sauteed them with a light coating of barbecue sauce and used them as pizza toppings, and in Sloppy Joes.

In this taquitos recipe, the green jackfruit is flavored with Taco Seasoning and used as a filling with beans and cheese to make scrumptious taquitos.

Simply add beans cheese and seasoned green jackfruit into a corn tortilla, roll it up and bake it, or pan fry it.

Idi Chakkai

Idi Chakkai is a comfort food for me, with pepper rasam and pain hot rice. Idi Chakkai feels wholesome, yet simple. It is made with young green jackfruit. My mom only made it a few times a year, around The Jackfruit Season, as it was labor-intensive to chop, clean and pound the green jackfruit.

(probably where the name of this dish comes from: Idi is to pound, and Chakkai is jackfruit => pounded jackfruit)

But now that canned young green jackfruit is readily available year-round, this recipe takes less than 10 minutes to put together, and uses just 4 ingredients in its simplest form - green jackfruit, coconut, chilies, salt.

Tempering is optional, and adds a nice touch to this simple dish.

Nendran Pazham is a variety of plantain/banana that happens to be my favorite. I haven't found it here yet. But, Burro Bananas, when ripe, get a similar texture, smell and color like nendran, even though they taste a little different and are much smaller in size compared to the nendrans I used to relish.

To add a simple dessert, boil the burro bananas (skin on), in some water mixed with brown sugar, till it is soft but not mushy; then, peel the cooked banana and enjoy as a dessert. This is basically the same procedure my mom used to cook nendran pazham and serve it up as snack or dessert for us when we were little.

Ingredients:
2 cans young green jackfruit, (comes packed in water), drained
¼ cup dry grated coconut
1 jalapeño, chopped
salt to taste
6-8 curry leaves (optional)
tempering: 1 Tbsp canola oil, 1 tsp urad dal, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds

Preparation

combine the young green jackfruit chunks and jalapeño in a blender or food processor and pulse a little - just to break them down a little, not too fine

tempering: heat oil in a pan, add the urad dal, when it turns golden brown add the mustard seeds and when they pop add the cumin seeds and let them plump up a little; turn down heat so as not to burn the urad dal; add the curry leaves

add the green jackfruit and jalapeño mixture, dry grated coconut, some salt to taste and stir well; cook over medium heat, stirring on and off till well-combined

Serve warm with simple roti, or, rice and pepper rasam.


Even though this dish leaves very little room for variations, this recipe here is just a tad different from the last time I made it about 3 months ago. This is my 'I' dish for Nupur's A to Z of Indian Vegetables event.

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p.s: Following a note from Nupur, I just wanted to add that canned young green jackfruit I use is available at most Asian stores in my area - perhaps it is available in Indian stores as well, am not sure.

green jackfruit curry

 

My mom used to make many dishes out of young green jackfruit during the jackfruit season. But, this was not one of them. My mom's recipes are more traditional. This curry recipe here is sort of made-up as I wanted something quick. Since I get canned green jackfruit pretty much year round, this recipe is a favorite as it is easy to throw together in under 20 minutes.


Ingredients
1 20oz can young green jackfruit, packed in water
½ 14oz can coconut milk
½ 14 oz can diced tomatoes with chilies
2 Tbsp garam masala powder
1 Tbsp cayenne pepper powder (adjust to taste)
½ tsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp canola oil
salt to taste
1 head broccoli, florets, plus stalk sliced thin
1 medium onion diced
1 medium potato,diced
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
chopped cilantro for garnish

Preparation

1. wash, drain and chop the green jackfruit into bite-size pieces
2. heat oil in a pan, add the onion, bell peppers and a pinch of salt, sauté over medium-high heat till onions turn brown
3. add the potatoes and broccoli stalk, a little water, cover and cook till they are crisp-tender
4. add the diced tomatoes, green jackfruit, broccoli florets, garam masala powder, brown sugar, cayenne pepper powder, coconut milk, some water, a pinch of salt; cover and simmer on medium-low till curry gets thick and rich
5. off heat, adjust salt to taste, garnish with cilantro; serve warm with basmati rice

Young Green Jackfruit

This is another favorite dish from my childhood days in India and I like it best when made as in this quick and easy recipe here.

I remember back in the days, jackfruit ("chakkai", as we called it at home) was available in loads during the season. Many prefer the ripe jackfruit. But, my mom used to incorporate young green jackfruit, as well as the large pit inside the jackfruit, into many different dishes. Also, she used to make a sort of jam with ripe jackfruit and jaggery which to this day makes my mouth water.

Young green jackfruit is available canned or sometimes fresh in season here at asian markets. I prefer the canned version as it saves a lot of cleaning and preparation time. I haven't found jackfruit pits in my local stores here in Portland so far.



Ingredients

2 cans young green jackfruit,usually packed in water and some salt and preservatives
1/2 cup dry grated coconut
3-4 green chilies (adjust depending on variety of chili)
salt to taste
1 Tbsp coconut oil (or canola oil)

tempering:
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp chana dal
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds


Preparation

1. grind the grated coconut and green chilies into a fine powdery paste and set aside
2. drain the water from the canned green jackfruit, chop or crush the chunks coarsely to the texture you prefer - i like it sort of as in the picture above :-)
3. heat oil in a pan, add the tempering: chana dal first, when it starts to turn golden add the urad dal and when they turn brown add the mustard seeds and then the cumin seeds
4. when mustard seeds splutter and die down, add the coarsely chopped/crushed green jackfruit, some salt and stir well till it is coated with oil and tempering
5. add the coconut-chili paste from step 1 and stir till well incorporated; serve warm as a side with rasam or sambar and rice.