Jackfruit Sukka

Rustic Maharashtrian sukka style curry or masala. This dish is typically made with red meat, mainly goat, but IMHO, it tastes even better with raw jackfruit 😛 And here’s the recipe! Please leave a comment here with your feedback if you try it 🙂

This dish is traditionally made in rural parts of maharashtra on a chulha/ chool – an open brick stove/ earthen stove and is cooked over an open wood fire. At the end of the recipe I have used a technique to smoke with coal, to mimic the flavor that you get with cooking on a traditional chool/ chulhah

You will need:

1 lb frozen or canned raw jackfruit pieces

2 large onions

1 medium sized ripe tomato

2-3 tbsp grated dried coconut

6-8 cloves of garlic – number of cloves depends on size – refer to the pictures below for a general idea of proportions

1-1.5 inch piece of ginger

1-2 green chillies

a large handful of cilantro with stems

1 star anise

powders – turmeric powder, hing, corriander powder, cumin powder, 1 tsp red chilli powder

Powdered masala mixes: 1 tsp malvani masala, 2 tsp kanda-lasun masala, 1 tsp garam masala, 1/2 tsp maharashtrian goda masala (you can use more or less masalas depending o your preference and heat tolerence. Try to stick the gereal ratio between the masalas to get the right flavor profile)

Oil (I used cold pressed non-filtered peanut(groundnut) oil)

ghee

salt

hot water

coal for smoking – optional

Procedure:

• Chop about 1.5 onions into thin slices and the remaining half fienly into small squares
• chop the tomato in small cubes. If the tomato is not very juicy and ripe, add 1/2 tsp of tomato paste to get extra flavor and color
• In a pan, toast the dried shredded coocnut until colden.

• remove it on a plate and to the same hot pan add some oil and fry the sliced onions – this does not have to be deep fried, just shallow fry until brown

• Remove the onions to a plate as well and let everything cool down
• In a grinder grind together the fried onions, toasted coconut, cilantro, green chilleis, ginger and garlic to a fine paste

• In a bowl transfer the frozen jackfruit pieces and pour hot water over it and keep covered for a few minutes. Drain and let it cool. then cut it to smaller bite sized pieces

• In a large non-stick pan, heat about 3 tbsp of oil and/ or ghee – I like to use a mix of the two
• Add the finely chopped onions and fry until golden
• Add the star anise to the onions
• Next add in the tomatoes and cook until they are soft and homogenously mixed in.
• Add the tomato paste with a touch of warm water at this point as well, the mixture shoulld be soft and oily at this point, if its too dry add more oil/ hot water – do not let this stick to the pan and burn, or the flavor will completely change.

• Cook this mixture covered ona low flame until its steamy and oil starts leaving the sides
• Once oil start leaving the sides, Add all the dry spice powders and saute for a bit until is looks homogenous and starts leaving oil on the sides.
• Then add the masala paste from the grinder and saute well

• you will see the masala change color from a greenish light brown to a deep rusty brown.
• The mixture will get glossy and aromatic and start leaving oil on the sides.

• Add about 1/4-1/2 cup of hot water (you can rinse the grinder jar with it) to the pan to deglaze it and make a smooth gravy – mix everything thoroughly and add salt to taste.
• Add the jackfruit pieces to the gravy mixture and c ook covered until done.

• Finish with some ghee and serve piping hot garnished with some cilantro. this bold spicy curry tatsed best with bhakri or naan. You can also serve this with rice – the best one for this is Indrayani rice, cooked to a soft consistency in some vegetable stock and topped with lots of ghee!

Coal Smoking:

• Make a well in the center of pan that the curry is in and place a steel bowl in it.
• Heat a small piece of natural wood coal on the flame until red hot, make sure it fully heated and not just red on the surface
• Once ready, place the coal in the steel bowl with the red hot side facing up
• Quickly add a pinch of garam masala on the red hot part followe3d by a few drops of oil
• The coal will start smoking instantly.
• trap the smoke in by covering the pan with a tight lid.
• Remove the lid after a few minutes. remove the bowl with the coal and stir the curry to mix in the smoke and dostribute it evenly.
• this smoke stays in the dish even after refrigerating and freeze-thawing.
• Some people add ghee instead of oil when smoking dishes this way, that tastes more like a wax-y smoke. the garam masala+oil truly gives the most authentic chulha/ tandoori style smokiness. you cana lso create slightly different frangrances by adding different spice mixes when smoking instead of the garam masala.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• Different brands of frozen jackfruits have different levels that they are cooked at. test it before and precook it if needed.
• You can also use canned raw jackfurit – this is definitely well cooked and is a little acidic in taste, but that doesnt hurt the dish. I prefer using the frozen one mainly because of its texture.
• If using fresh raw jackfruit, hopefukly you know the drill on how to clean and cut it – you will need to pressure cook this before adding it to the gravy
• This sukka dish freezes well, and you can also freeze the masala and add the jackfruit when you want to eat it.
• This recipe also tastes fantastic with mushrooms – I like to use portobello mushrooms cut in big chunks
• Barring the ghee, everything is plant-based in this recipe. You can substitue the ghee with just more oil in cooking and some began butter for finishing.