Side dish with breadfruit (കടച്ചക്ക തോരൻ)

Side dish with breadfruit (കടച്ചക്ക തോരൻ)

If you are wondering what is breadfruit, refer to this page on Wikipedia. It is our own 'kadachakka' as you see in the picture below. It is a rich source of carbohydrates and proteins, in addition to the many vitamins, which makes it a very healthy item in our menu.

Image credit: Hans Hillewaert, reproduced under the Creative Commons license.

Today let me tell you how to prepare a dry side dish with the bread fruit.

Ingredients:

1) Breadfruit             250 grams


2) Garam Masala      1 tsp
   Coriander powder  1 tbsp
   Chilly powder        ½ tbsp
   Coconut pieces      cut in to small pieces
   Salt                         as required
   Turmeric powder   ½ tsp

3) Coconut oil    1½ tbsp

4) Mustard seeds  1 tsp
    Small onion      6 nos. chopped into small pieces
    Curry leaves     1 spring
    Pepper powder  as required





Method of preparation
First take the breadfruit and peel the hard skin off. Wash well with water and cut into small pieces. Refer to the picture below for the size and shape of the pieces. In a clay clay pot, (by the way, it is better to use a clay pot to prepare this dish) put the breadfruit pieces and add items under 2. For better taste you can roast the powders a bit. Add a little water to cook the breadfruit pieces. Wait until the pieces are cooked well.

Heat oil in a pan and sprinkle the mustard seeds.When they start sputtering add curry leaves, small onion pieces and pepper powder. Stir it well. Add this onto the cooked breadfruit pieces and stir well.

Chakka ada (evening snack with jack fruit)

Chakka ada (ചക്ക അട)

Today I will describe a delicious evening snack that you can make out of the jack fruit. It is called 'chakka ada'. Traditionally the ada is made using banana leaves, as seen in the picture below. The banana leaves add a taste of it's own to the ada. This item is a combination of rice flour with jack fruit. You can prepare the same dish from jack fruit jam (or chakka varattiyahtu) if you have that available with you.

 

The picture below shows chakka varattiyathu.

Ingredients:

Chakka varattiyathu     1 cup (or fresh jack fruit made into a fine paste 1 cup)
Roasted fine rice flour  1 cup
Coconut                        1 cup, grated
Cardamom powder       1 tsp
Cumin seeds powder    1 tsp
Salt                               as needed
Melted jaggery             as needed
Ginger powder             1 tsp

 

Method of preparation

Make a fine paste out of the flesh part of the jack fruit, if you are using fresh fruit. Or else start with the jack fruit jam, warm it a little bit by if you have kept it in the fridge. Add jaggeri syrup and make it loose. Add rice flour to this and mix well. Add coconut and all the other ingredients. Mix well to make a fine smooth dough, make sure that there are no lumps in the mixture. You can add water if necessary, but the dough should not be very loose. The rule of the thumb is that, it should be think enough to hold itself when made into balls.

Place each ball on a piece of banana leaf and flatten it with the fingers to spread it as thin as you can on the banana leaf, fold the banana leaf over and press the ends along the edges to secure the filling. Cook the ada on steam well.