Ok, I will admit it! I have been way behind on the whole jackfruit bandwagon!
The other day I was perusing my local Asian food market and saw a big stack of cans of jackfruit and thought that this has GOT to be a sign! I have been looking for it for quite sometime, Trader Joe's sold out ages ago and I haven't seen it back in the store since.
What is a jack fruit??
Here are a few paragraphs from Epicurious.com:
"Depends on where you’re sitting. If you’re in some parts of south and southeast Asia—India, Bangladesh, Thailand—it’s an everyday food. The starchy unripe fruit can be cooked in curries, while sweet, ripe jackfruit complements sticky rice and ice cream. You can get jackfruit chips, jackfruit noodles, jackfruit papad. Followers of American vegan-cooking blogs, on the other hand, will find unripe jackfruit compared, with confounding frequency, to “vegan pulled pork.” Seriously, it’s a thing.
If you're someone concerned about climate change and food production, though, you might see jackfruit as a "miracle," as one researcher described it to the Guardian. It's a good source of protein, potassium, calcium, and iron, it's plentiful, and it has tons of uses. "It's a very versatile fruit," says Nyree Zerega, a plant biologist at Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden who studies "underutilized" crops. "It can be your main meal and your dessert all in one." The seeds can be roasted and eaten, or ground into flour; even the timber from the jackfruit tree is useful. And jackfruit grows exuberantly in subtropical and tropical climates. Leela Punyaratabandhu, proprietor of the Thai-cooking blog SheSimmers, says that many people in Thailand grow up with two or three jackfruit trees in their backyard.
The only thing: “You’re not supposed to sit under it,” Punyaratabandhu says. Individual jackfruit can grow up to 100 pounds—it's the largest tree-borne fruit in the world. When we talked, Punyaratabandhu said she'd recently picked up a jackfruit of her own. "I just brought home a 20-pounder," she said. "It's still sitting on my kitchen counter."
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 medium large onions, finely minced
1 head garlic, peeled and finely minced
2 large fingers fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (adjust for personal taste)
1 (12 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (14 oz can) young jackfruit, drained and diced
1/2 head cauliflower, chopped
3 russet potatoes, peeled, parboiled and cubed
1 cup water
1 can light coconut milk
2 cups frozen peas
salt to taste
fresh cilantro for garnish
steamed basmati rice
Directions
In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and coconut oil. Add the onions, garlic and ginger. Saute over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, adding a few drops of water if it gets too dried out.
Stir in the cumin, garam masala, curry powder, salt, turmeric and cayenne. Saute for 1-2 minutes.
Stir in the tomato sauce, jackfruit, cauliflower, potatoes and 1 cup of water. Cover and simmer until the potatoes and cauliflower are tender.
Stir in the coconut milk and peas, simmer an additional 4-5 minutes.
Serve over basmati rice and garnish with cilantro.