TENDER JACKFRUIT FRITTERS, IDICHAKKA BHAJIA

The season of jackfruit has started and it is time to relish the dishes made out of this.  The baby jackfruit thoran also known as tender jackfruit or idichakka in Malayalam is part of the Sadhya in Kerala Household.  Every Kerala house will have the tree of jackfruit, mango in the backyard and there is no need for them to go out and buy the same.

The fruit right from tender to ripe one is used for making thoran, curry, chips and sweet dishes and chakavarati.  Chakkavarati can be stored for a long time and made payasam out of it with coconut milk.

It is yummy and I remember my child hood days that we sit and peel lot of jackfruit bulbs to make the varatti.  Varatti is made with the fruit bulbs boiled, ground and jaggery is added to it to make it very thick along with some ghee so that it does not get spoiled and remain intact for a year definitely.  Before that it will get over.

Coming back to the recipe, I purchased a baby jackfruit, made thoran out of it and there were still 200 gms balance in it.  Hence I thought of trying the Bonda out of it and the Pakoda also.  Today I made both the dishes and really enjoyed  for my breakfast.

You can either chop the tender jackfruit very finely and mix it with the gram flour and spices or steam cook the same and mash it and add to the gram flour.  I opted for the second version  i.e. steam cooked the same and mashed it.

 Let us look at the recipe now:

                                                                             

    
                                                                  Ingredients:     
     

100 gms	Steamed and mashed raw jack fruit
½ cup	Gram flour, besan, kadala mavu
1 tsp	Red chilli powder
	Generous pinch of asafetida
1/8 tsp	Turmeric powder
Salt	Adjust as idli batter is having salt already
Pinch of	Ajwain, omam, ova (optional)
1 onion	Finely chopped
2 tbsp	Chopped coriander leaves
Oil	For frying

Method:

Step 1

In a mixing bowl,  mix the gram flour, mashed raw jackfruit, salt, turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander leaves,onion,  hing  powder and mix well.  There is no need to add water. The moisture in the jackfruit is enough to bring to the desired consistency of the bhajia batter.

Step 2

Heat oil in kadai.  To check whether the oil is hot or not put little bit of batter in the oil, if it rises immediately, the oil is hot enough to fry the bhajias.

Step 3

Pinch out little bit of batter and put in the oil and fry them till it is done.  Fry them in two batches.

How to serve:

Serve hot with chutney, sauce or as it is.

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