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.