May 17, 2010

Back after the break with Chakka Curry - Jackfruit and brown chana cooked in coconut gravy

Finally back after a long break, which was not meant to be this long. A sudden trip to be with my parents and sister's family. I had planned to blog from there. But I couldnot withstand the heat of  North India, though I am used to mercury hitting 40 C in the South. For most of the days I stayed there, I wasn't keeping well . So I was in mood to sit and write for blog. On top of it I had some pending projects to be completed too. In short, I could not do any thing I planned. Except for two days of  outing, I stayed indoors. Our return trip had to be made via Bangalore for want of tickets. That meant few days of staying with my MIL, BIL and family. My nephew and niece had extracted a promise from me that I stay with them during their vacation. And they are happy that I kept my promise.

And after three weeks,we were back home. It feels good to be back home and  to the routine after a break. There are so many pics in my drafts folder to be posted.  Somehome, I was not able to get into the mood to blog after the break. I have been trying to make a post for the past one week with out much success. Hope after this initial reluctance, I will be able to post regularly.


Here is a recipe with the seasonal fruit - Jackfruit. I didnot get to eat much of jackfruit since I was away for almost a month.




You need


Semi ripe jackfruit bulbs- 20 nos

Brown chana - handful
Turmeric  - a pinch

salt to taste

chilli powder - a pinch

To roast and grind

Urad dal - 2 tspn

Red chilli - 2 nos

Cumin/jeera - 1/2 tspn

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup


Seasoning

Coconut oil - 1 tblspn

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Red chilly- 2nos, broken into two

Grated coconut - 1 tblspn


Method


Wash and soak channa for 6 hours or overnight. Pressure cook till it is soft. You can use cow peas also in place of chana. Remove the seeds from the jackfruit bulb and chop into bite sized peices. The fruit should not be ripe and should be firm. At this semi ripe stage, the taste  will be a mix of sour and sweet. This is ideal to make chakka curry.

Cook the chopped fruit with half cup of water. Add turmeric and salt and a pinch of red chilli powder. When its almost cooked, add the cooked chana and let it cook together for 5 minutes.

Roast the urad dal and red chilli in a teaspoon of oil till dal turn light brown. Grind the roasted ingredients along with coconut and cumin to a smooth paste. Add water just enough to grind.
Add the ground coconut paste to the cooked mix and adjust the consistency by adding water if requied. The curry is semisolid. It gets thicker on cooling.  Do the seasoning along with grated coconut and fry till it turns light brown. Garnish with curry leaves. My measurement of coconut is less compared to what my Amma cooks.  If you wish, you can increase the amount of coconut in grinding and garnishing.




16 comments:

  1. Recipe is new to me,never tasted before,sounds good!

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  2. Recipe sounds different.i need to try this sometime......
    check out my blog sometime

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  3. I heard that it's too hot in Bangalore too. I was there last year in May, really suffered! :D


    Glad you are back and back to routine. JF and Chana combo is fab, love it. Good one to have with Chapatis.

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  4. welcome back dear..wow..what a combination....delicious

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  5. Gud to see you back dear and this is new to me...looks very interesting

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  6. never tried jackfruit incooking..just tried sambar with seeds..but this kootu does look so amazing and yumm..

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  7. Looks great Jayashree! We don't get fresh jackfruit here but I make the most of the canned version!!

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  8. Wat a beautiful combo, never tried this, looks fabulous..

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  9. hope ur enjoyed ur trip with family...lovely dish..so cute color..and bful cliks..

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  10. great to see you back Jaya! Looks like you had a nice trip. The dish looks so good. never used jackfruits in my cooking. This is a lovely dish.

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  11. nice tro see you back dear jackfruit and black chana interesting combination curry looks great.

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  12. Ho so u r back.was missing ur posts..

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  13. New twist to the regular chana curry, love it.

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  14. bful color of the curry..love the addition of jackfruit...yum

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  15. ooh.. i want to have a bit right now.. but no chakka.:((((

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