Finally back after a long break, which was not meant to be this long. A sudden trip to be with my parents and sister's family. I had planned to blog from there. But I couldnot withstand the heat of North India, though I am used to mercury hitting 40 C in the South. For most of the days I stayed there, I wasn't keeping well . So I was in mood to sit and write for blog. On top of it I had some pending projects to be completed too. In short, I could not do any thing I planned. Except for two days of outing, I stayed indoors. Our return trip had to be made via Bangalore for want of tickets. That meant few days of staying with my MIL, BIL and family. My nephew and niece had extracted a promise from me that I stay with them during their vacation. And they are happy that I kept my promise.
And after three weeks,we were back home. It feels good to be back home and to the routine after a break. There are so many pics in my drafts folder to be posted. Somehome, I was not able to get into the mood to blog after the break. I have been trying to make a post for the past one week with out much success. Hope after this initial reluctance, I will be able to post regularly.
Here is a recipe with the seasonal fruit - Jackfruit. I didnot get to eat much of jackfruit since I was away for almost a month.
You need
Semi ripe jackfruit bulbs- 20 nos
Brown chana - handful
Turmeric - a pinch
salt to taste
chilli powder - a pinch
To roast and grind
Urad dal - 2 tspn
Red chilli - 2 nos
Cumin/jeera - 1/2 tspn
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Seasoning
Coconut oil - 1 tblspn
Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Red chilly- 2nos, broken into two
Grated coconut - 1 tblspn
Method
Wash and soak channa for 6 hours or overnight. Pressure cook till it is soft. You can use cow peas also in place of chana. Remove the seeds from the jackfruit bulb and chop into bite sized peices. The fruit should not be ripe and should be firm. At this semi ripe stage, the taste will be a mix of sour and sweet. This is ideal to make chakka curry.
Cook the chopped fruit with half cup of water. Add turmeric and salt and a pinch of red chilli powder. When its almost cooked, add the cooked chana and let it cook together for 5 minutes.
Roast the urad dal and red chilli in a teaspoon of oil till dal turn light brown. Grind the roasted ingredients along with coconut and cumin to a smooth paste. Add water just enough to grind.
Add the ground coconut paste to the cooked mix and adjust the consistency by adding water if requied. The curry is semisolid. It gets thicker on cooling. Do the seasoning along with grated coconut and fry till it turns light brown. Garnish with curry leaves. My measurement of coconut is less compared to what my Amma cooks. If you wish, you can increase the amount of coconut in grinding and garnishing.
