Idichakka Thoran

Kerala's tender young jackfruit, boiled, pounded in a mortar, and tossed with a coarse paste of coconut, green chilli, and cumin, then tempered with mustard seeds and curry leaves

Origin: Kerala, India

From the journey of Jackfruit.

Idichakka is the name Kerala gives to jackfruit picked very young, before the seeds have hardened, when the whole fruit, core and all, is tender enough to cook, and the name records how it was cooked: the tender fruit was boiled and then pounded, idichu, in a mortar before it met the coconut. Idichakka thoran is the result, a dry stir-fry in which the pounded jackfruit, fibrous and faintly sweet, takes up a coarse paste of grated coconut, green chilli, cumin, and garlic and is finished with a tempering of mustard seeds, dried chilli, and curry leaves. It is one of the first dishes of the jackfruit season and a fixture of the feasts of Vishu and Onam. A thoran is defined by its coconut: the vegetable is cooked dry, with no water beyond what clings to it, and the grated coconut is stirred through at the end. Kerala makes thorans of cabbage, beans, beetroot, green papaya, and the leaves of the taro; the jackfruit version is the one that needs a mortar.

Ingredients

Jackfruit

  • 1 small tender jackfruit (about 1 kg), or 600 g prepared tender jackfruit, or 2 x 400 g tins of young jackfruit in brine, drained
  • 0.5 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1 tsp salt

Coconut Paste

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

Tempering

  • 2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 0.5 tsp black mustard seeds
  • 1 tsp split black gram (urad dal), optional
  • 2 dried red chillies
  • 1 sprig curry leaves

Method

  1. Oil your hands, a heavy knife, and the board. Cut the tender jackfruit into quarters, pare away the skin thickly, and cut everything else, core included, into chunks.
  2. Cook the chunks in just enough water to cover, with the turmeric and salt, for 15 to 20 minutes, until soft. Drain well.
  3. Pound the cooked jackfruit lightly in a mortar, or pulse it briefly in a food processor, until it breaks into coarse shreds.
  4. Grind the coconut, green chillies, cumin, garlic, and shallots to a coarse paste without water.
  5. Heat the coconut oil in a wide pan, add the mustard seeds, and when they pop add the urad dal, dried chillies, and curry leaves and fry until the dal turns golden.
  6. Add the jackfruit and the coconut paste and stir-fry over a moderate heat for about 5 minutes, until everything is hot and the raw smell of the coconut has gone.
  7. Serve with rice as part of a Kerala meal.

Notes

Choose the youngest jackfruit you can find: once the seeds have hardened, the fruit is too fibrous for idichakka and is better used for puzhukku or erissery. The atlas's other thorans include the everyday cabbage thoran and kappalanga thoran of green papaya.

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