Jackfruit Sabzi

RE: Working with fresh jackfruit - The three essential things you need are a sharp knife, vegetable oil (to grease your hands and prevent the sticky sap/latex from adhering to them) and patience to remove the pods one by one. Jackfruit's cousin, breadfruit, which originated in New Guinea, has been eaten as a staple starch for millenia. Brining is unnecessary. The seeds are edible after roasting, with a flavor resembling chestnuts.

I’d say, don’t bother! Even in India most home cooks never buy uncut jackfruit. They buy it already cut with the thick skin removed by the vendor. It takes a special skill to remove the skin. If you really want to take it on, there are YouTube videos you may want to check out first. In my experience , most uncut jackfruit sold in the west is already in the ripening stage. This means some of the flesh has become yellow and sweet and hence no longer meant to be cooked as a vegetable.

It's one of the dishes I miss most while living in the US. My Punjabi mother makes it either like a dry sabzi or in a tangy yogurt sauce that clings to the jackfruit. There is nothing quite like it.

This was an easy and delicious weeknight dinner. I've used canned jackfruit before, Trader Joe's has canned green jackfruit in brine. A quick trip to the Indian grocery for some of the spices was all I needed and now it's going to be in my regular rotation. I served it with rice.

The word "latex" in an above comment was a red flag for me, so off to google I went. Yes, latex really is present in jackfruit, and those who have allergy to latex should proceed carefully. My allergy is to skin only (my medical and dental people have to use vinyl) so I don't think I would worry much about it, but there have been anaphylactic reactions in folks who are more allergic than I am. Just a heads up!

I love jackfruit! I was inspired by this recipe but I used tamarind juice in place of tomatoes as that imparts an amazing flavor. I am so happy to see canned jackfruit at Trader Joe's as it is a lot of work to cut it. Jackfruit curry was made for weddings in my family as a substitute for meat!

Substitution of coconut powder for green mango powder(amchoor) will make very different taste . Amchoor is better replaced with lime or lemon at end of cooking for that kick of fruit sourness . That said amchoor is readily available online or at any Indian or Asian grocery store .

RE: Kashmiri chili - This is a cayenne cultivar grown under cool conditions (the Himalaya/Karakoram range runs through Kashmir) with plenty of water: both minimize capsaicin production, so there is lots of flavor and color, but little heat. Substitute a sweet or medium-hot paprika, or any cayenne powder labeled "mild".

Curry leaves - look up "Murraya koenigii" in Wikipedia. So-called because its fresh leaves are often added to curries. Grows quite well indoors as a potted plant if you give it plenty of sunshine and water it daily. (Interestingly, I got my plant as a free gift from a *White* lady who's now the Chief Dietician at Kona Community Hospital, Hawaii.) If you can't find it in an Indian store, skip it.

This was delicious! Will definitely add to my regular repertoire. Although I generally don't like making substitutions the first time I make a recipe, I didn't have all of the spices. So I looked up acceptable substitutions and used a combo of fresh basil and lime zest to replace the amchur. Didn't have black mustard seeds, so used yellow ones. And didn't have Kashmiri chile powder, so used urfa biber (smoked Turkish chile flakes). Still delicious! Eager to try with the recommended spices, too.

Couldn’t find kashmiri chili powder or amchur - used 1/2 chili powder 1/2 smoked paprika and sumac instead. This was delicious!

My wife cooked it the other day. She air-fried the jack fruit for 10 minutes instead of frying it in oil. Turned out good.

Followed the recipe, but used a can of diced tomatoes instead. Everyone had seconds.