Young Jack Fruit (Palamusu) Fry

Happy Saraswathi Puja wishes to Senthil’s Kitchen family and friends!  Sorry for the gap with my blogs.   Hope Goddess Saraswathi will bless me to come up with more blogs for the sake of my satisfaction and for the enjoyment of my fans.

In today’s blog, I will share a simple, yet mouthwatering recipe for young green jack fruit fry!  We call it “Palamusu Varuval” in my hometown (Thanjavur) in Tamil Nadu.

While writing this blog, I was intrigued by the name “Palamusu”.  What does that really mean?  Upon a bit of investigation (or lazy googling I would say…), I found out how this name could have come into place:

1. Palamusu = Pala + Musu
2. “Pala” in Tamil means Jack Fruit; “Musu” in Tamil (synonym “pidari”) means a rounded protuberance found on the back of a camel or other animal; “musu” also means “kondai” in Tamil (“bun” hairstyle)
3. Now put these two together.  Doesn’t a young jack fruit looks like a hump of an ox or a camel, or the “kondai” hairstyle of a woman (or some men these days…)?

Wow, a very meaningful Tamil name for the young jack fruit which I was not aware of all these years!  I wonder how the young jack fruit is called in other Indian languages, and if there are similar interesting facts behind those names…

Young jack fruit dishes are very famous in the neighboring state of Kerala too.  “Chakka Thoran” is a very popular and addictive Kerala dish (“Chakka” means jack fruit in Malayalam).

Sometimes the jack fruit is confused with an another similar looking fruit called “Bread Fruit”.  I myself had fallen victim one time, bought bread fruit (all the while wondering how come jack fruit comes in all shapes and forms in US) and cooked it thinking it to be a jack fruit!  We will talk about it on an another blog.

The young jack fruit when correctly cooked tastes like mutton (like my dad says!).  Here is an another awesome side dish for you all, Palamusu Fry!  Enjoy with hot rice and sambar, or rasam or yogurt curry.

This young jack fruit is highly seasonal and is available only during few months in the year.  But you can try this dish anytime with the frozen young jack fruit cut pieces available in the freezer section in most of the desi grocery stores (cannot beat the taste of the fresh jack fruit though, but it is ok, life is full of comprises, right?).

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Young Jack Fruit (Palamusu) Fry

A mouthwatering sukka fry made from young jack fruit!

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Indian

Keyword Chakka, Jack Fruit, Palamusu

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 4 people

Author Senthil Sadasivam

Ingredients

Pressure cook young jack fruit

• 1 lbs Young Jack Fruit Skinned, cut into chunks
• 1 tbsp Ginger/ Garlic paste
• 1/2 tbsp Chili powder
• 1/2 tbsp Coriander powder
• 1 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1/4 cup Shallots/ onion chopped
• 2 Green Chilies chopped
• Salt to taste

Young Jack Fruit fry seasoning

• 1/2 inch Cinnamon bark
• 4 Cloves
• 4 Cardamom
• 1 tsp Fennel powder
• 1 tsp Black Pepper powder
• 1 tsp Jeera powder
• 2 Red chilies broken
• 2 sprigs Curry leaves
• 2 tbsp Oil

Other ingredients

• 1/4 cup Tomatoes chopped
• 2 tbsp Coconut paste
• 1/2 tbsp Tamarind/ lime juice

For garnishing

• 2 tbsp Cilantro chopped

Instructions

1. Pressure cook young jack fruit pieces: Wash the young jack fruit and remove skin and cut into small chunks and add to a large pressure cooker with enough water to immerse the pieces.  Add ginger/garlic paste, chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, chopped shallots/ onion, chopped green chilies, salt and mix well.  Pressure cook for 1 whistle and wait for a few mins for the pressure to release on its own. But make sure you do not overcook the pieces, it should be about 75 percent cooked, remaining cooking should happen along with the masala. You can also skip the pressure cooking step and directly add the pieces to the masala and cook them, just allow more time to cook.

2. Sukka fry seasoning: Take a wide nonstick pan, pour oil, when hot, add the whole garam masala tadka ingredients in one go (except powders), fry for few seconds until slightly browned, add curry leaves, add the powders (fennel, black pepper, jeera) and fry for few seconds.

3. Add tomato, fry them well.

4. Add the pressure cooked jack fruit pieces along with the stock, coconut paste, mix well, check salt and let it simmer stirring occasionally until it dries out (or remove early if you want it in curry stage).  If you are adding tamarind juice, you can add it now and cook for few mins.

5. Drizzle some lime juice (if tamarind juice is not used) and garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve.