BreadFruit
Will See you tomorrow with a recipe on the same. In the meantime, do check on how to clean and dice a breadfruit in the next post on my blog. Sharing a video from the net on how to peel and core a cheema chakka. Do listen to yet another beautiful song of Elton John's that I treasure.
This morning -So, first thing's first is it is a bit of a messy affair peeling the entire breadfruit, so do keep at hand a bowl of water to immerse the diced breadfruit and also some oil to dab into whenever the sap or milk of the fruit rubs against your palms. I have posted a video in the next post taken from the net just to make you understand how to go about it in a prepared manner.
The moment the cheema chakka is cut through, the milk starts oozing and it also starts to oxidize and discolor. So be prepared for that magic! Dice and immerse it in water that is resting in a bowl.
Into a deep vessel throw in the cleaned and diced pieces along with a tsp of turmeric powder and salt and let it cook. I placed them in a pressure cooker and it was done in three whistles.
You need coriander powder, chilly powder, fennel seeds, pepper corns and its powder(optional), a stick of cinnamon, a clove or two and a cardamon. These spices are to be added to grated coconut later on that is being sauteed in a saucepan. Almost like how one would prepare a theeyal.
These coconut bits also go into the cooked cheema chakka. I had forgotten to add them and included them later on. In the above plate I have set aside the stuff for tempering-finely chopped onions or thinly sliced shallots, mustard seeds, curry leaves and a dry broken red chilly.
While the breadfruit cooks in the deep bottom vessel, in another saucepan saute the grated coconut until it toasts well. Do not leave its side and do not burn the coconut. If it does, then please discard it. Once the coconut has almost toasted throw in the spices and toss them all about until you obtain something like the picture given below.
Allow this mixture of toasted coconut and spices to cool and once cooled grind it to a fine paste. By now your kitchen smells too good with the toasted coconut and the ground mix. I would do anything to literally trap that smell in a bottle. It smells of South India :) I have so many fond memories watching my grandmother, mother and when my mother was starting to get unwell her domestic helpers would do this tossing about for her over the hot hearth. Thank you Santha and all the other chechis who have helped to take care of my ailing grandmother and mother until both of them breathed their last. This was not supposed to be a sad recipe...sorry it took that deviation.
Yup! it is bubbling away! the ground mix was added to the cooked breadfruit and allowed them all to get familiar.
Tempering was done on the side as well-a tbsp of oil into the vessel , crackle mustard seeds, chopped onions, curry leaves and the dry red chilly and once they have browned add them to the cooked cheema chakka curry. Check if there is enough salt and spices. Do keep in mind that you had cooked the fruit with salt so add accordingly.
Mine got a bit spicy owing to that extra pepper powder added for extra heat, you can avoid that. Oh boy! this was almost like a beef/meat curry that one could just visualize falling off the bones huh. Unfortunately for some of the readers it is a vegetarian dish out to tickle and leave behind its mark on your taste buds.
This could be had with some red rice or tapioca/cassava/kappa puzhkku or in whichever combo you would like it. I had them with my curry leaves rotis, onion rings and a cheek of lime. The bread fruit like soya chunks almost mimics a meat dish and is a perfect dish to prepare on a rainy day or a day devoid of meat but still you have the urge to eat something similar. Do enjoy! I have not mentioned the quantities of spices used as you would use your intuition to add or subtract according to your taste preference. |
Comments
Post a Comment