‘ Kadgi ‘ means raw jack fruit. ‘ Chakko ‘ or ‘ sushal ‘ is a kind of side dish with coconut. This dish is one of the most popular dishes among Konkanis. I had tasted it when I was a kid, but had completely forgotten about it. This dish is also called as “Kadgi sukke” (Sukke meaning a dry dish).
Gowri sent me this recipe many days ago. For few days I could not find raw jack fruit here. I am not very comfortable with tinned jack fruit, because I feel all the tinned products have a considerable taste difference compared to the fresh ones(I may be wrong in this, but I never prefer any tinned products). Then recently I saw the frozen raw jack fruit pack in Indian store. I used this frozen jack fruit for this dish.
As I was not remembering about this, I searched the recipe books and also asked my mom about the recipe that she had followed. All the confusion was due to one of the ingredients. Some people used urad dal in this dish and some used methi seeds . (According to my Aayi, Gowri and books, it is urad dal and according to Aruna and few more links that I got, it is methi seeds ).
This dish turned out amazing. Thanks Gowri for reminding me about it. In the following method, jack fruit can be replaced by Bamboo shoots ( Keerlu ) to get “ Keerla chakko “.
Ingredients: 1 cup green(raw) jackfruit 3/4 cup coconut(fresh or frozen) 4-5 red chilies 1 tea spn coriander seeds 1/2 tea spn urad dal 3/4 tea spn or methi (fenugreek) seeds 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract 1 tea spn mustard seeds 5-6 curry leaves Oil 1/2 tea spn jaggery(optional) Salt
Many people do not include jaggery in this dish.
Method: Heat a little oil and fry coriander seeds and urad daal (or methi seeds). Grind them with coconut, jaggery(if using), red chilies and tamarind to a coarse paste (do not mix too much water). Cut the jackfruit into bite size pieces. Beat them lightly with a stone or rolling pin.(If using the tinned jack fruit, open tin and squeeze all water from jack fruit. Soak in water for sometime and discard the water to get rid of saltiness. Smash the jack fruit with hand or shred it). Heat 1 tbl spn of oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add curry leaves. Add jack fruit and fry for a minute. Put in the ground masala, sprinkle a little water. Cook on a low flame for around 20mins mixing in between. Add salt (be careful if using the tinned jack fruit. Since it already has salt, add a little only if required). Mix well.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 30mins
From last few days, due to weather change I am suffering from fever and a severe throat infection. Though fever went down soon, there is this weakness and my taste buds have gone for a toss. In this condition, I would be more than happy to make a great tasting, very easy to make dish in no time. That’s when I got this recipe from Pelicano. I tried it immediately and it tasted heavenly.
Here is what Pelicano said about this dish, “I thought of this delicious recipe the other day. I make it just once in a while when I can find pineapples that are very nice. It is from an old cookbook of mine called “premila lal’s indian cooking” 1968….It is an odd collection of recipes from all over India…and I know this one is from the south somewhere by its ingredients and methods. It is so delicious…I cooked apples in the gravy once too and they were splendid as well…The only thing hard to do is browning the onions evenly so as not to get a scorch taste, but I am sure you are good at this by now. Let me know if you try it out”.
“I don’t like it too mushy, so I don’t let it cook for too long. I keep checking for tenderness and hope no one notices that the dish is disappearing. The only thing is whatever you do, don’t use canned/tinned pineapple for this. The flavor is….well….you know all too well. Hope you enjoy”.
My reaction after tasting this dish??? Mmmmmmmmm………wah wah :). Thanks a ton Pelicano.
Ingredients: Pineapple (cut in bite size pieces) 1 large Coriander seeds 1 tea spn Red chilies 8 Ghee/oil 1 tbl spn Large onion (sliced fine) 1 Mustard seeds ½ tea spn Jaggery egg size lump Water 2 cups Salt
I used 1 cup of pineapple and ¾ cup of onion. To make it still faster, I used chili powder(1/2) tea spn and coriander powder(1/2 tea spn). Added just a ¾ tea spn jaggery to suite my taste. The quantity was enough for 2 people.
Method: Grind coriander and chilies to a paste. Heat ghee and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add onion and fry till they turn slightly brown. Add pineapple, coriander/chili paste and fry just until well mixed. Add salt, jaggery and water. Simmer on a very low flame until the gravy thickens a bit. Serve with rice, puris or idlis.
Serves : 4-5 Preparation time : 30mins
