Pansache Dhonas

Goan jackfruit cake: the pulp of the soft rassal jackfruit worked into semolina with coconut and jaggery and baked slowly in an earthen pot beneath burning coconut husks

Origin: Goa, India

From the journey of Jackfruit.

Dhonas (in Marathi, dhondas) is the Goan jackfruit cake: dense, moist, and golden, made in the season from the pulp of the ripe fruit mixed with semolina, grated coconut, and jaggery, flavoured with cardamom, and baked slowly. It is traditionally cooked in an earthen pot over a wood fire, with coconut husks burning on the lid to give heat from above, so that the cake bakes rather than steams. Goans divide their jackfruit, ponos, into the firm kaapo and the soft rassal, and dhonas wants the rassal, whose pulp cooks prize for its honeyed sweetness. The jackfruit grew in Goa long before the Portuguese came, but the oldest document found for this entry that names Goa's jack trees is Portuguese. In 1547 a grant of land at Calangute, north of Panaji, made over a palm grove and ground for planting 'mango trees and jack trees', mangueiras e jaqueiras. Garcia de Orta, whose dialogues on the simples and drugs of India were printed at Goa in 1563, gave the fruit a scene of its own: his visitor asks what fruit it is that is as big as the largest coconuts, and is told that he has just been eating the chestnuts from inside it.

Ingredients

Cake

500 g ripe soft (rassal) jackfruit bulbs, seeded
200 g jaggery, grated
180 g fine semolina (rava)
100 g freshly grated coconut
0.5 tsp ground cardamom
0.25 tsp salt
2 tbsp cashews, chopped

To Bake

2 tbsp ghee, for greasing and brushing
1 piece of banana leaf, or two turmeric leaves, to line the pot (optional)

Method

Purée the jackfruit bulbs to a coarse pulp in a blender, or pound them in a mortar.
Warm the pulp with the jaggery in a pan over a low heat, stirring, until the jaggery has melted into it, about 5 minutes. Leave to cool a little.
Stir in the semolina, coconut, cardamom, salt, and cashews. Cover and leave to stand for an hour, so that the semolina swells. The batter should be thick enough to drop heavily from a spoon.
Grease a heavy pot or a 20 cm cake tin with ghee and line the base with the banana or turmeric leaf. Spread in the batter, smooth the top, and brush it with ghee.
Bake at 180°C (160°C fan) for 55 to 65 minutes, until the top is a deep golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.
Let the dhonas cool completely in the pot before turning it out and cutting it; it firms as it cools.

Notes

The firm kaapo jackfruit gives a drier and less fragrant cake. The fruit should be fully ripe and scented but not fermenting. Dhonas keeps for three or four days in a covered tin and is often better on the second day.

The Gastrographer

Name: Pansache Dhonas
Prep time: 1 h 20 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 2 h 20 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 500 g ripe soft (rassal) jackfruit bulbs, seeded; 200 g jaggery, grated; 180 g fine semolina (rava); 100 g freshly grated coconut; 0.5 tsp ground cardamom; 0.25 tsp salt; 2 tbsp cashews, chopped; 2 tbsp ghee, for greasing and brushing; 1 piece of banana leaf, or two turmeric leaves, to line the pot (optional)

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control