Breadfruit Fritters (Jeev Kadge Phodi)

Breadfruit Fritters (Jeev Kadge Phodi)

Imagine beautifully red, deep fried, spicy, delicious, pillowy soft, creamy fritters are handed over to you. Would you say no to them? You definitely can't. If you have one of those, you'll want them more & more. You just can't stop at one & definitely can't have enough of these. Its mojo does work on you. That's 'jeev kadgi phodi' for you. 

Breadfruits are thinly sliced & are beautifully coated with a bright red, spicy, rice batter. They are then delicately deep fried to make the most amazing fritters on this planet. :) These breadfruit fritters are spicy, creamy, soft & do melt in your mouth. 

Yes, breadfruit is one of the best veggie to be deep fried or shallow fried to make delicious fritters. And Konkani cuisine adores this veggie. Every Konkani household is crazy about these fritters & we shallow fry or deep fry them at least once a week, during summer. Breadfruit is available throughout the year, but they are available in abundance during summer.

Breadfruit is used a lot in Konkani cuisine. It is called as jeev kadgi in Konkani. We prepare yummy phodi's of breadfruits called as jeev kadgi phodi. Phodi's mean shallow fried or deep fried veggies in Konkani. Jeev kadgi phodi are prepared mainly in two ways - by deep frying and by shallow frying breadfruit.

Deep fried breadfruit fritters are prepared as a starter/side dish for lunch or as an evening snack. Breadfruit fritters are prepared in mainly two different ways as part of Konkani cuisine. Most popular way of preparing breadfruit fritters is by deep frying breadfruit, coated with a spicy rice batter. The other way is to deep fry breadfruit using a gram flour batter.

Here's the recipe to make spicy, yummy jeev kadgi phodi, breadfruit fritters using a spicy, rice batter. We usually have this as a starter/side dish for lunch or as a teatime snack. They are amazingly delicious. You'll agree with me once you give it a try. 


Ingredients:

  • Half a medium sized breadfruit - We need about 14-15 slices.
  • 1 cup rice - any medium rice grain will do.
  • Oil for deep frying
  • 5-6 dried red chillies
  • 1 tablespoon of tamarind/lemon sized tamarind
  • A pinch of crystal asafoetida/asafoetida powder (optional)
  • Salt to taste 

Serves: 3-4

Preparation Time: 45 minutes


Preparation Method:

1. First soak rice for a minimum of 30 minutes.

Prepping the breadfruit:

2. Peel the breadfruit and cut them into thin slices. Chop off the excess inner core portion. Put breadfruit slices into a bowl of water to prevent their discoloration. 

Thickness and shape of the slices is a personal choice. If the slices are thick then they'll take a little longer time to cook. If they are thin, they'll cook faster but will have to be cooked with care so as not to make them too hard and crispy.

3. Remove the slices from water, add salt and keep them aside for 15 minutes.

This process helps the breadfruit get a little soft. Also, during this time breadfruit takes up salt and gives out water. Thus, breadfruit cooks faster, as it would have given out the excess water in it. Salt added also prevents discoloration. 

Preparing the rice batter:

4. Wash the rice grains well and drain all the water, after a minimum of 30 minutes of soaking. 

5. Grind soaked rice with red chillies, tamarind and salt into a smooth paste using just enough water needed to make a paste.

The batter has to be thick so be careful not to add any excess water.

6. Transfer the ground batter into a bowl. Add crystal asafoetida melted in water/asafoetida powder and mix well. 

Asafoetida is added for taste and it also takes care of any gastric problems that might occur due to breadfruit.

7. Check and adjust salt. Add a little water, if required, to the batter. The batter has to be in between thick and dripping thin. If it's too watery it'll drip off the breadfruit slices and won't stick to it. 

If your batter gets watery, add gram flour to thicken it. Gram flour makes the batter thick. Add flour little by little and mix well to avoid any clump formation. 

8. Heat up oil for deep frying. 

9. Meanwhile, squeeze the breadfruit slices a little to remove any excess water content present in it. Add the breadfruit slices one by one into the batter and coat it uniformly with it.

10. Once the oil is rolling hot, add in breadfruit slices coated with batter one by one into the hot oil.

Set the heat to medium. If the flame's high, fritters will get crispy on the outside but will remain raw on the inside. If the flame's low, then they'll absorb a lot of oil. 

11. Fry them on medium heat, until they change colour and are completely fried. Fry them just enough for soft fritters. If you fry them for an extra minute they get a little crispy and that tastes good too. Fry them to your liking. I prefer just fried enough, soft fritters.

12. Transfer them onto a blotting paper to drain excess oil and serve them hot as a starter/side dish for lunch or for tea time snacks.


Find more fritter (bajo, phodi) recipes here.


Tags: evening snacks, Konkani recipe, Konkani dish, Konkani cuisine, Udupi cuisine, Mangalore food, Konkani food, vegetarian, sides, fries, fritters, breadfruit, lunch, dinner, ugadi, Ganesh chaturthi, ganapathi festival

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