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.