Going by its name, Jackfruit is the largest tree-borne fruit. It can grow up to as much as 30 to 40 kilograms in weight. Jackfruit is a fruit within a fruit, with each carpel being an individual fruit. It is cultivated in Southeast Asia and In India, it is mainly grown in the Western Ghats.
Using jackfruit in the culinary, dates back to at least 3000 to 6000 years. Different people in different regions use this fruit in their own traditional way. The same applies to coastal Karnataka. As mentioned in my previous blog post, in its season, jackfruit is a part and parcel of every meal in a different form. Few of the interesting dishes that are prepared in this region are “Maambala” (resembles the dried fruit bars available in the market), boiled jackfruit seeds, sonte (jackfruit chips), jackfruit honey (prepared out of ripe jackfruit carpels) and the list goes on. Sound interesting!!! Don’t they?!!! Yes, in today’s post, let’s look into one of these interesting items – Sonte / jackfruit chips. The recipe is very simple with fewer ingredients. The main challenge here though is choosing the right jackfruit. Below are the main criteria that I can list, from my mom’s experience and my observations:
- Jackfruit of choice should be completely grown and ripe
- The thicker the jackfruit carpel, the better it is
Special thanks to my mother for helping me out with this recipe and dish.
Jackfruit chips can be made in different ways, either using salt or chilly powder. Here in this post, I proceed with salt version, just to make it Kids-friendly.
Let’s get started
Total time : 30 minutes
Preparation time : 15 minutes
Cooking time : 15 minutes
Servings : 4
Ingredients :
Jackfruit carpels : 30-40
Salt : Little
Coconut oil : For frying
Method :
- Cut the jackfruit carpels into thin slices and keep aside
- Dissolve little salt in water and keep aside
- In a deep bottomed pan heat the coconut oil
- Once the oil is hot enough, transfer the sliced jackfruit carpels in batches and fry in medium flame
- Once the slices turn golden yellow, sprinkle salt water and mix (exercise caution here – keep the flame low)
- Remove the fried slices from the pan and transfer it to a container
- Sonte / Jackfruit chips is now ready to serve
- You may preserve it in an air tight container
It’s a perfect snack for the rainy evenings or for your weekend TV shows!!!
Jackfruit Chips stories:
In today’s era of packaged food, it is possible to get almost everything off the shelf. For the consumer, it is always a hard decision on what to buy and what not to. From the health perspective, it is better to reduce the intake of such food, if not completely stop (As I do understand that it is not easy for everyone to prepare everything at home) as far as possible. Instead, I would say, try out something interesting and simple at home, for you can be sure of what ingredients go into it. Example : Why not try jackfruit chips?!!! I bet, kids will certainly love this, and stop pestering their parents to purchase the junkies from the market, who will be more than happy to dole out something homemade with safe and healthy ingredients. Kids Khush == Mums Khush
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