Chakka Pradhaman

Kerala's jackfruit payasam: ripe jackfruit cooked down with jaggery and ghee into chakka varatti, simmered in thin and then thick coconut milk, and finished with coconut slivers and cashews fried in ghee

Origin: Kerala, India

From the journey of Jackfruit.

A pradhaman is the grandest of Kerala's payasams, sweetened with jaggery and cooked in coconut milk rather than in cow's milk, and chakka pradhaman is made from ripe jackfruit that has first been turned into chakka varatti: the bulbs cooked down in a heavy pan with jaggery and ghee, stirred for the best part of an hour until the mass is dark, glossy, and comes away from the sides. Varatti was how the glut of the season was saved, and a jar of it, which keeps for months, means a pradhaman whenever there is a feast. Cooks prefer the firm varikka for varatti, because it gives a fleshier paste, to the soft and stringy koozha. The preference is old. Jordanus, the Dominican friar who became bishop of Quilon, wrote around 1330 of a second jackfruit 'quite as big and as sweet' as the first, and Yule and Burnell read its name as varikka, the superior fruit; a few years later Ibn Battuta was told that the barkī was 'sweeter and better-flavoured' than the common shakī. The pradhaman is finished as Kerala finishes its festive payasams, with slivers of coconut, cashews, and raisins fried in ghee, and with a pinch of dry ginger to temper the richness.

Ingredients

Chakka Varatti

  • 600 g ripe jackfruit bulbs, preferably firm varikka, seeded and chopped
  • 100 ml water, for cooking the jackfruit
  • 250 g dark jaggery, grated
  • 60 ml water, for melting the jaggery
  • 60 g ghee

Pradhaman

  • 500 ml thin coconut milk (second extract)
  • 250 ml thick coconut milk (first extract)
  • 50 g jaggery, grated, to taste (optional)
  • 0.5 tsp ground cardamom
  • 0.25 tsp dry ginger powder (chukku)

To Finish

  • 2 tbsp ghee
  • 3 tbsp thin slivers of fresh coconut
  • 2 tbsp cashews, halved
  • 1 tbsp raisins

Method

  1. Cook the chopped jackfruit with the 100 ml of water, covered, for about 10 minutes, until soft. Purée it coarsely.
  2. Melt the jaggery in the 60 ml of water over a low heat and strain it to remove any grit.
  3. In a heavy pan, ideally a bronze uruli or a thick-based wok, cook the jackfruit purée with the jaggery syrup over a moderate heat, adding the ghee a spoonful at a time and stirring constantly, for 35 to 45 minutes, until the mass is dark, glossy, and leaves the sides of the pan. This is the chakka varatti.
  4. Stir the thin coconut milk into the varatti and simmer, stirring, for 10 to 15 minutes, until it thickens to the consistency of pouring cream.
  5. Taste, and add the second measure of jaggery only if it needs it. Stir in the cardamom and dry ginger.
  6. Lower the heat, pour in the thick coconut milk, and heat it through without letting it boil. Take the pan off the heat.
  7. Heat the ghee in a small pan and fry the coconut slivers until golden, then the cashews, then the raisins until they puff. Pour everything, ghee and all, over the pradhaman.
  8. Serve warm or at room temperature, in small bowls or on a banana leaf at the end of a sadya.

Notes

The varatti can be made in the season and stored: it keeps for months in a clean, dry jar in the refrigerator, provided it is spooned out with a dry spoon. A pradhaman then takes twenty minutes. Soft koozha jackfruit can be used, but it gives a softer, more fibrous varatti.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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