Karnataka Dish

Do you know jackfruits are one of the biggest fruit in the world? It is very popular fruit in India and neighboring countries. One can see big jackfruit trees bearing many fruits during pre-monsoon season. Every part of the tree is very useful for humankind. The fruit is deliciously sweet in taste. Recent reports on hunger and starvation says that the “miracle” crop that could save millions from starvation. One fruit can weigh between 10 and 100 pounds and contains hundreds of seeds that are rich in protein, potassium, calcium, and iron — all of which are important for bodily growth. A single tree can yeild two to three tons of fruit each year. As in durian fruit, jackfruit outer surface too is covered with blunt thorn-like projections, which become soft as the fruit ripe. Its interior consists of eye-catching orange-yellow color edible bulbs. Each bulb consists of sweet flesh (sheath) that encloses a smooth, oval, light-brown seed.
Using sweet flesh one can prepare many dishes. One of the popular dish from Karnataka is jackfruit idli that can be a good breakfast item or lunch and dinner, and it is easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

• Ripe Jackfruit flesh paste 1 cup
• Semolina ½ cup
• Jaggery (powdered) ¼ – ½ cup
• Cardamom powder ¼ tsp
• Nutmeg powder pinch
• Salt pinch
• Water
• Ghee

Method:

1. Chop the Jackfruit flesh into small pieces.

2. Heat the ghee in a pan and fry the semolina until you get a nice aroma. Let it cool.

3. Grind the chopped Jackfruit, powdered jaggery, cardamom powder, nutmeg powder and salt along with little water into fine paste. Transfer the paste into a bowl.

4. Add semolina to the ground paste and mix well. Consistency of this batter is slightly thicker and drier than Idli batter. Rest the batter for 1 hr.

5. Grease the Idli plates with ghee and pour the batter into it.

6. Keep the Idli plates in cooker or Idli maker and cook for 25-30 minutes.

7. Serve hot Jackfruit idlis with Ghee.

Image and recipe: Mamatha Anil @ bhakshyabhojanablogspot.com