How To Chop A Raw & Ripe Jackfruit

Steps to chop & prep raw and ripe jackfruits remain the same. Have listed them in detail below.

Watch how to chop here:

Tender raw jackfruits are used abundantly in cooking. Apart from raw jackfruit peel & inner hard core, every other part of raw jackfruit is used in cooking. The aril, tendrils and jackfruit seeds too. Raw jackfruits are a pleasure to eat while they're tender. That's when the seeds are soft & still developing. Once they start to mature, the seeds start to harden.

You know the raw jackfruit is tender or mature by it's size and by looking at the thorns on the peel of raw jackfruit. Tender most raw jackfruits have tiny thorns very close to one another on the peel. As they grow, mature, the thorns grow in size and grow apart.

Tender most jackfruits are best suited to make a delicious Konkanistyle raw jackfruit side dish - kadgi chakko, raw jackfruit pickle - kadgi pickle, raw jackfruit fritters - kadgi phodi. And mature ones are best suited to make raw jackfruit curry - kadgi randayi.

Mature jackfruit that's started to ripen is in the pic below. You know it from the thorns on the peel & the change in colour of jackfruit peel. The thorns on the jackfruit peel are bigger in size & are very well spaced out.

We enjoy only the aril, the delicious raw jackfruit fruit & toss everything else in the bin.

For raw jackfruit prep you'll need:

A sharp sickle (called as koithi in Konkani) or a sharp knife.
Lots of clean newspapers.
Coconut oil or any other oil to grease your palm & your knife.
Few bowls to hold chopped jackfruits and the discarded skin.
Tissue papers

Prepping raw jackfruit:

1. Spread out 3 layers of newspapers on the floor or on your table. It's a pain to later clean jackfruit sap sticking to the floor/table.

2. Apply generous amounts of oil onto your knife/sickle blade (and onto your hands too if needed) to prevent jackfruit gum from sticking to your knife, fingers and hands.

3. Chop jackfruit in the middle into 2 halves, wipe clean the white sap that drips off using a tissue paper.

The pics you see below are that of a tender raw jackfruit. The seeds are still developing & are soft.

4. Chop it further into halves. Chop each piece further into halves depending on their size. Clean off the sticky sap using tissue papers. These halves are called as 'shedo' in Konkani.

5. If there's excess gum oozing out of the jackfruit, clean it using a paper towel. Or it'll make your chopping board messy and sticky.

6. Chop off the outer skin of raw jackfruit until you get a smooth surface and the thorny peel is all gone.

7. Chop off the excess inner, center, ridge portion, but keep a thin layer so that the inner compartments of jackfruit are held together firmly and they don't disintegrate all together in case of raw jackfruits.

And in case you're chopping a ripe jackfruit then remove off the inner core portion completely so that you can remove the jackfruits pods off its compartment using your fingers.

The inner jackfruit core is the hard white portion at the top of each piece.

8. Chop the raw jackfruit pieces into thin slices or cubes depending on how you want to use them in cooking. They look like these below:

9. Add chopped raw jackfruit pieces into a bowl containing water to prevent any discoloration. This process also helps wash off the excess gum. That way raw jackfruit pieces don't stick to the plate or vessel you put them in. You are done prepping a raw jackfruit.

10. In the case of ripe jackfruit, remove off each jackfruit from its compartment using your fingers. They're called aril. Remove off white thin strips of membranes that surround each jackfruit pod. They're called tendrils. Discard them.

11. Each jackfruit pod will have a seed within called as 'bikand' in Konkani. Carefully open the jackfruit pods and remove the seeds out, along with its outer membrane. Retain the seeds for later use as a snack (mentioned below), to make a stir fry, a spicy side dish.

12. Keep all the jackfruit pods in a bowl. When all the jackfruit pods have been removed, discard all the remaining portions of the ripe jackfruit. Enjoy the jackfruit.

Using ripe jackfruits you can also make

Jackfruit Idli (Ponsa Idli),

Jackfruit Fritters (Ponsa Mulik) &

Jackfruit Payasam (Ponsa payasu)

Cooking raw jackfruits:

1. Pressure cook raw jackfruits with salt and 1 cup of water for 1 whistle to get soft, well-cooked raw jackfruit. Just1 whistle or they get overcooked.

Add 2 tablespoons of oil while cooking raw jackfruits to help you clean your pressure cooker easily later on. Oil prevents any gum from sticking to your pressure cooker.

Using raw jackfruits make:

Raw Jackfruit Curry (Kadge Gashi)

Raw Jackfruit Curry (Kadgi Randayi)

Raw Jackfruit Sukka/Dry Masala (Kadge Chakko)

Raw Jackfruit Fritters (Kadgi Phodi)

Raw Jackfruit Pickle (Kadgi Nonché)

Pickle any excess raw jackfruits, here's How To Pickle Raw Jackfruits (Mitta Ghalel Ponsa Sali) to make Pickled Raw Jackfruit Stir Fry (Salla Upkari)