Jack fruit Curry

The moment I saw the baby Jack fruit, many memories came flooding down my spine, like the trip to South India during my college days, when I bought a huge Jack Fruit (because all friends were buying), too heavy to carry, brought it home and then being scolded by my family for the strong aroma that dominated my house for days. It brought back the memories of my school days, when every lunch break, we sat under the shade of Jackfruit tree, (we had 7 such trees in the school compound) and my boarded friends complained of being served the same jackfruit dish too often for meals and how much they hated it. It brought the memories of my mom, who loved this fruit so much that she invented various innovative dishes to make it tasty, making us believe that we were having non-veg meals on vegetarian days.

Succulent, soft and sweet when ripe, the taste closer to banana and mango, it tastes best in salads and desserts. Very nutritious, like so many tropical fruits, it is rich in dietary minerals like calcium, potassium and iron. It is excellent source of energy-giving carbohydrates, fiber and micronutrients making it a perfect staple food.

During my recent trip to Jaipur, (I was attending a wedding), Jackfruit made its special appearance in the form of most spicy barbequed, fibrous dish. At a glance it resembled roasted Chicken but the taste was unique, it still lingers and I plan to replicate this dish soon.

But for now, I will make do with Jackfruit curry. 

Ingredients:

250gms Jack Fruit

200gms curd

1tsp garlic paste

1tsp ginger paste

5green chilies

1tsp turmeric powder

2tsp coriander powder

1tsp cumin powder

1tsp 5spice powder

2tsp salt

2tbsp oil

2 medium size onions

2 bay leaves

2 cardamoms

2 cloves

1inch cinnamon stick

2 dried red pepper

2 medium size tomatoes

Method:

Here is the step-by-step method for cooking delicious Jackfruit curry. (You can adjust the quantity of salt, chilies and oil to suit your taste)

Step 1:

Chopping the fruit is bit tricky. You need to oil your hands and the blade for smooth cutting. The hard wooded center and the outer spiky skin need to be discarded. The inner fibrous flesh is used for cooking

Step 2

The fruit has to be cleaned thoroughly, and should be either deep-fried or boiled.

Step 3

I prefer deep-fried because that gives a crunchy taste. But in this method, I have boiled it.

Step 4

On the side, prepare a curd masala by mixing garlic, ginger, chilies, turmeric, coriander powder, cumin powder, 5 spice powder and 1tsp salt

Step 5

Mix the boiled/fried jackfruit pieces to the curd masala

 Step 6

Leave the marinated fruit in the fridge for over 4 hours.

Step 7

In a separate pan, heat oil. Add bay leaves, cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon and dried red pepper. Add finely chopped onions and cook till light brown.

Step 8

Add the marinated fruit, add chopped tomatoes and cook till it begins to stick to the sides.

Step 9

Add 1cup water and 1tsp salt, stir it well, cover and let it cook till oil floats on the top

Step 10

Serve with hot buttered parathas or steamed rice.

Malaysian Tourism Announces Food Festival

While the disappearance of Malaysia Airline is still a mystery, and it might hurt the tourist industry of the country, Malaysia is celebrating the tourism year 2014 with various events lined up during the year. There are great variety of musical festivals stealing the show during the month of April (Penang World Music Festival), May(Borneo Jazz Festival), June (Rainforest World Music Festival), July(Morneo Cultural Festival) and December(Penang International Jazz Festival)

The show must go on…

The Director General, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, Dato Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, who was speaking at a news conference in Mumbai, said that the travellers would overcome the sense of fear.

During the Q & A session, although there were repeated questions on the safety of the tourists, the talk was still diverted towards what they offer to those interested in travelling to Malaysia.

We were very amused to learn about Shoe festival that is just round the corner; this might interest women who are fetish about shoe collection.

Friend confirms that the shopping is cheaper in Malaysia as compared to India, and informs me of big range of gadgets that she has collected during her trips to the city. There is one Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival during the months, (June to September) and the year-end sale in the month of November that promises incredible discounts and promotional offers.

But the most useful events that interest me is the one that is related to food events and this will be in full swing during the end of the year from October to December. The three-month-long cuisine event is divided into four segments: 

the Malaysia International gourmet Festival, 

The Asian Food Heritage trail, 

the Street Food Festival and 

the Restaurant Food Festival.

Now into its 13^th Successive year, the Malaysia International Gourmet Festival made its debut in September 2001. During this festival, restaurants put aside their competitive differences, share contacts and come together in a collective marketing effort. Rather than bringing the chefs from abroad for a one-off food promotion, the Festival’s unwavering focus is on skills of the world-class chefs already residing in Malaysia and the all-year round of their cuisine and restaurants.

During the year 2012, group of food bloggers were invited for ASEAN Heritage Food Trail in Penang by Ministry of Tourism Malaysia to witness this culinary showcase building bridge and linking culture with Indonesia and Thailand. The challenge for chef from three different countries was to use a common ingredients with innovation cooking method to create delicious dish, the ingredients for appetizers had to include bamboo shoot and fern, main course should have shallots, lemongrass and galangal and dessert was mainly on sago.

Image Source

Malaysia team prepared Bamboo Shoot and Fern Kerabu, Delicious Malay style salad with springs of fern, raw bamboo shoots, shredded coconut, local lettuce and spicy seasoning

The Malaysian Street Food Festival gives an opportunity to explore and purchase traditional Malaysian art and craft. Besides street food, there are many added attractions like martial art performances to music shows, traditional dances native to various regions around Malaysia, cultural display and many more

The detailed list of itinerary of fabulous food at Street and Restaurant Food Festival can be found at their site on Malaysia tourism

Four other food bloggers, Sameer Malkani @FoodBloggerAI, Nisha Jha @Cemonde , (a common man dines)@Ajit Balgi and @BhaktisBanter (Just Let it B) were also present at the news conference and together(in between our private tweets) we wished for a special privilege to travel to Malaysia to savor the flavors of their cuisine, preferably a pure vegetarian one.

picture courtesy: Sameer Malkani

Product Review- Jiwa Atta

I was lunching at the newly launched ‘Roti Boutique’ the experience center of Jiwa Atta at Bandra.

There was a big variety of puffed roti to choose from (Nutra Chakki fresh, Jawari, Bajri, Makkai, Soya, Rajgiri, Multigrain and also Slimming, diabetic, blood pressure care atta). The rolls could be custom made from the choice of base (mixed greens or sprouts), dips (Mexican salsa, hummus, desi chutney, nutty pesto, hung curd, Asian wasabi or Nutty peanut) and the mains (stir-fried tofu, panner, bhindi aloo, beans & feta, exotic veggies or tandoori fruits)

The neatly rolled Roti tasted delicious and the taste differed in every roti, each delicious in its own combination. There was no sogginess, no dripping of the sauces and nor was there an over-stuffed fillings.

At this point I missed my nephew, who is a fitness freak, like most of the youth today, his main focus is on body building at the gym and eating healthy food: no fried food, no cheese, no oil, no bread, no rice. Here was the meal, I was sure, he would be interested because the main food is roasted and olive oil is used during cooking.

So what is so unique about this roti-roll?

These are the rotis made not from the ordinary flour that we get at every super-store, but it is made from special flour called ‘Jiwa Atta’

“We care about the health of our consumer” says Raghav Gupta, who belongs to the family of food business since 50 years. “Our food is responsibly sourced and created from the ground up, using real and natural ingredients. The only additives that go into our food are essential vitamins and minerals.  We’ve also ingeniously enriched our food with probiotics and are proud to be the first ones to do so.”  He adds.

The rotis were soft and puffed like normal one. I have seen my cook make a batter with Jawar or Bajra flour and pour it on hot plate to roast. They are hard, thick and stiff. But this was made into proper dough just like every other rotis and this is because the Nutra ingredients added are in fixed percentage to the wheat flour. “The flour is the combination of whole grains, dehydrated vegetables and herbs, edible seeds and other super-foods in exacting proportion, researched and analyzed, so that it has the proper tailor-made benefits to the body.” Inform Raghav Gupta

“There is a special type of flour for the age group from 8-18 years that contains fiber, proteins and calcium for growth and strength of the body. Research is on to produce product for children under 8years, because parents would be more interested in the health of their children.”

Yes, I am sure, women are always looking for health products for their family because the health of the family is her main focus. I did see many clients walk into the store during my visit, and most of them were young mothers.

The experience center at Bandra, I think, is the great place to try these rotis. This is the place where people can see the live demo of the puffed rotis while they choose their fillings, and they can also estimate the creditability and usefulness of the product before they take a packet of Jiwa atta back home.

You can visit their experience center in Bandra
Jiwa
Prabhat Kunj
24th Road
Off Linking Road
Bandra

Cooking Techniques of Japanese Cuisine

I have tried cooking most of cuisines around the world, Chinese, Continental, Indian, Thai, Spanish, etc. but never before have I tried cooking Japanese cuisine. So recently, when I got the invite from Rushina to learn few Japanese dishes at APB cook studio, I grabbed the opportunity.

Detail of this workshop is written very eloquently by another food blogger Shanti Padukone, who had also attended this workshop. You can visit her post at Riot of Flavors

We were a small group of twelve women, we worked in pairs.

We started with handmade Udon noodles.

 Dissolved the salt in 1/2cup water and mixed it with 200gms of high quality flour to make a dough. Kept it for 1 hour, rolled it, using flour to dust the rolling pin and work surface. Folded the dough up into fourths and cut it into flat noodles, boiled in boiling water to produce shiny udon noodles.

In separate pot we made mushroom soup, adding onions, mushrooms, celery, soya sauce, vegetable stock, vinegar, sesame oil and boiled noodles.

We then sat around the table to make some Sushis.

Boiled the ‘sushi rice’ at the ratio of water:rice as 1:1..added vinegar to the boiled rice. Sushi rice is very sticky, hence wetting finger tips makes the work easier.

Place seaweed on the mat, spread vinegar flavored sushi rice, put the layer of stuffing and roll it tight. The stuffing contained eggs, that was cooked in a special way (fried into paper thin consistency, rolled several times, and then cut into strips). The stuffing should be colorful, so can add yellow strips of eggs, white strips of cucumber or radish, red strips of crab meat or carrot, green strips of capsicum. 

Sushi tastes good with pickled ginger, soya sauce and wasabi.

Okonomiyaki is the cabbage patties. ½ Cabbage is shredded and kept in water for 15minutes. When ready to eat, it is drained thoroughly and mixed with 3eggs, salt and 100gms flour. The mixture is fried till crisp and garnished with mayonnaise, oyster sauce and chopped spring onions.

Since dessert is a must, we made sweet potato cakes. Boiled sweet potato is mixed with butter and sugar to make a smooth paste. Mix in egg yolk. Add cream and rum and squeeze out from a nozzle into the baking tray. Brush the top with egg yolk or milk and bake for 10-20 minutes till it is crisp.

It was a fun event, specially the eating part.

Get the detail account of this workshop at Riot of flavors

At this moment I wish to thank Rushina and APB Cook Studio Team for giving me this opportunity to learn this new technique of Japanese Cooking.

Now waiting for some guests to arrive to test my cooking skills.