Chakka Puzhukku

Kerala's monsoon staple: mature unripe jackfruit boiled soft and crushed with a coarse paste of coconut, cumin, green chilli, and garlic, finished with raw coconut oil and curry leaves

Origin: Kerala, India

From the journey of Jackfruit.

Puzhukku means boiled or steamed, and it names a family of Kerala dishes in which something starchy, tapioca, yam, plantain, or jackfruit, is cooked until soft and then crushed together with a coarse paste of grated coconut, cumin, green chilli, and garlic, and finished with raw coconut oil and curry leaves. Chakka puzhukku is made from the mature but unripe fruit, when the bulbs are firm and starchy and the seeds have formed but not hardened, and it is the plainest and most important of the jackfruit dishes: a meal in itself with a bowl of rice kanji, or, eaten with a Kerala fish curry, a pairing that Kerala cooks hold to be second to none. It was the food of hard times. The jackfruit season runs on into the monsoon, when work in the fields was scarce, and in the Kerala of living memory it was the labouring poor who lived on it through the rains. Henry Yule and A. C. Burnell, writing in 1903, observed that the jack was 'at this day in Travancore one of the staples of life', and they meant it as a comparison with the fruit on which Pliny's Indian sages were said to live. Both of Kerala's jackfruits are used, the firm varikka and the soft koozha. The firm fruit keeps some of its pieces whole under the paste, and the soft one gives a smoother mash.

Ingredients

Jackfruit

1 kg mature unripe jackfruit bulbs, seeded and cut into 1 cm strips (from about half a medium fruit)
12 tender jackfruit seeds, white skin removed, thinly sliced (optional)
0.5 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp salt
250 ml water

Coconut Paste

120 g freshly grated coconut
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 green chillies
3 garlic cloves
2 small shallots

To Finish

2 tbsp coconut oil, plus a little for the hands and knife
2 sprigs curry leaves

Method

Rub your hands, the knife, and the board with coconut oil before you start. Cut the jackfruit segment, pull the bulbs away from the fibrous rags, remove the seeds, and slice the bulbs into strips about 1 cm wide.
Put the bulbs, and the sliced seeds if using, in a heavy pan with the turmeric, salt, and water. Cover and cook over a moderate heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until soft.
Meanwhile grind the coconut, cumin, green chillies, garlic, and shallots to a coarse paste, adding a splash of water only if the blender needs it.
When the jackfruit is soft and nearly dry, add the paste and crush everything together with the back of a wooden spoon, leaving some pieces whole. Cover and cook for 3 to 4 minutes more.
Take the pan off the heat, pour over the coconut oil, crush the curry leaves in your hand over the pan, and stir them through.
Serve warm with rice kanji, or with a red Kerala fish curry.

Notes

Do not use ripe fruit: puzhukku needs the starch of the mature but unripe jackfruit. Tinned young jackfruit is too young and too watery for this dish. Tapioca and yam are cooked the same way; the atlas has kappa puzhukku and kaachil puzhukku.

The Gastrographer

Name: Chakka Puzhukku
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 1 kg mature unripe jackfruit bulbs, seeded and cut into 1 cm strips (from about half a medium fruit); 12 tender jackfruit seeds, white skin removed, thinly sliced (optional); 0.5 tsp ground turmeric; 1 tsp salt; 250 ml water; 120 g freshly grated coconut; 1 tsp cumin seeds; 3 green chillies; 3 garlic cloves; 2 small shallots; 2 tbsp coconut oil, plus a little for the hands and knife; 2 sprigs curry leaves

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control