I love raw as well as ripe Jackfruit and apart from being full of vitamin, minerals, electrolytes, phytonutrients,carbohydrate, fiber, fat and protein, it is not only a good source of calorie but contains no cholesterol or saturated fats. Jackfruit flesh, when ripe , has a distinct sweet aroma and is delicious in taste. It is called Kathal in Hindi and Phanas in Marathi.
Today we will use raw jackfruit for this recipe. We make Jackfruit vegetable in variety of ways and one of them id Jackfruit Koftas Curry which can be as delicious as the Keema Kofta curry. Many people refer to it as vegetarian mutton because of the resemblance of their texture. Will post the recipe one of these days.
Jackfruit kebabs if done nicely can put any shammi kebab to shame or let me say it is difficult to distinguish between the two. This is my personal recipe and I would love your comments once you have tried it. I am sure you will love this preparation.
To make Kathal (Jackfruit) kebabs you will need
Ingredients:
Raw tender jackfruit (diced with seeds) – 2 cups
Bengal gram Split (chana dal) Soaked – 1 cup
Onion -2
Ginger – 1 inch
Garlic – 4-5 pods
Green chilies – 2 (according to taste)
Clove – 3-4
Green cardamom -3
Black cardamom -2
Fennel seeds – 1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon
Mace a small piece
Black peppercorns 5-6
cinnamon stick – 1/2 inch
Salts- to taste
Garam masala- 1/2 teaspoon
Amchur (dry mango power) – 1 teaspoon
Boiled potato – 1 (mashed)
Oil – to shallow fry the kebabs (they can be grilled in the oven too)
Fresh green Coriander – 1/4 cup
Method:
First peel and dice the raw jackfruit into equal size pieces. Soak Chana Dal for at least 3040 min after washing. Once the dal is soaked drain the water.
In a pressure cooker put the jackfruit pieces, dry spices, green chilis and soaked chana dal, one onion peeled and roughly chopped, garlic and ginger pieces, a little water and salt. Let it cooker under pressure on medium flame. ( two whistles is enough) .
Let he pressure cooker cool. Once done, remove the content to cool completely.
In a food processor add half of the content and give a few turns. Then add the rest to give a rough texture. (Too smooth won’t taste or look good)
Take the mixture out in a mixing bowl once everything is blended nicely. Add chopped coriander, dry mango power, red chilli power, finely chopped green chili and test the salt. Add more if necessary. At this stage add the previously boiled and mashed potato for binding. You can use a raw egg also instead of boiled potato. Add home-made garam masala.
At this point keep a small pan on flame and in a tablespoon of oil brown finely chopped onions. Add those to the mixture.
Mix everything nicely and make small balls. Flatten the balls a little with fingers to give them a cutlet shape.
Heat a non stick pan and put a little oil for browning the kebabs. place the raw kebabs in the pan and let them brown nicely on slow flame from both sides.
Once the kebabs brown nicely take them out on a kitchen towel to absorb excess oil.
In a plate arrange the well done kebabs and serve them with Green mint and amla chutney .
You can mix tomato ketchup in the mint chutney to make Pakistan sauce (someone gave the chutney this name, can’t remember who)
Serve the kebabs hot. You can half cook the kebabs and freeze them for a day or two. When you want to use them you can thaw the kebabs and shallow fry or grill them till they brown from both sides equally.
Do let me know your experience if you try this recipe.
You can make kebabs with raw banana or Yam in the same way. They too taste fantastic.
Enjoy !