Jackfruit Fritters (Ponsa Mulik)

Jackfruit Fritters (Ponsa Mulik)

With the start of jackfruit season, don't we all crave for some delicious ponsa mulik? Yup. I do. I'm sure you do too. After we've had our share of ripe jackfruits from a jackfruit season, ie, we've had lots of & enough of ripe jackfruits & don't feel like eating them anymore, but there's still a surplus of ripe jackfruits coming in, and the season's glut has to be emptied, that's when we asked mom to make some delicious mulik, ponsa mulik for us. She sometimes made them happily for us herself, sometimes cribbed about the extra work involved, as we asked for them more often. :) Food does connect us with our memories in a wonderful way isn't it? 

Ponsa mulik in Konkani, are sweet jackfruit fritters. They are made using ripe jackfruits. They are crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Ponsa mulik make an amazing snack! They're delicious and yummy! They can be stored for up to a week & we enjoy them as a snack, at any time of the day at home. But they taste best while they are fresh. They taste great while they're steaming hot & or once they cool down too. And I love them for the next 2 days. After that, they tend to get a little soggy & dry as days pass by. 

These jackfruit fritters have some surprise for you at times. With a bite into them, you might find tiny bits of fresh coconut or nice crunchy bits of cashews in them. I love these soft fritters with cashews in them, they add a nice crunch to every bite of these fritters.

These jackfruit fritters are commonly known as mulik in Konkani. They are prepared by grinding together rice, ripe jackfruit pieces, jaggery, salt, grated coconut for softness. A smooth-coarse, dry batter is made without using any water. Then a little semolina is added to the batter to give it a nice texture and to add crispiness to these fritters. They are then deep fried to make delicious fritters.

Mulik is an amazing snack made from ripe jackfruits. They're called halasina hannina mulika in Kannada. And these fritters are a jackfruit delicacy from Udupi, Mangalore. You might also like 2 other jackfruit delicacies: ponsa payasu (jackfruit payasam) and ponsa idli (jackfruit idlis). Give them a try.

So, here's what my mom usually did. The batter for jackfruit idlis (ponsa idli) & jackfruit fritters (ponsa mulik) are the same. She made a huge batch of this batter. She steamed some batter to make delicious, sweet, jackfruit idlis, had steaming hot with lots of ghee on top. Some of the batter she deep fried to make delicious fritters.

Technically, these fritters are easy to make if you're making a small batch. Give them a try & you can snack on them all day long. Getting the right consistency of the batter is only the tricky part, so that they don't get oily/soggy & hold their beautiful, round shape on deep frying. A watery batter will result in soggy, shapeless fritters. Not to worry, you have the necessary tips mentioned below. I bet you'll make delicious fritters using them.

And, if you are making a huge batch of these fritters like my mom, then you might need some help with removing the jackfruit pod off its compartment using your fingers, deseeding & plucking off thin strips of membranes that surround each jackfruit pod, then finely chopping these jackfruits. That would be a lot of work.

Here goes the recipe to make delicious ponsa mulik. You can also call them jackfruit dumplings. :)

Ingredients:

  • 8-10 ripe jackfruits
  • 1/2 cup rice (any medium grained rice will do)
  • 1/4 - 1/2 cup semolina (small sized rava/chiroti rava/bombay rava will do)
  • 1/4 -1/2 cup powdered jaggery
  • 1/4 cup grated coconut
  • Salt to taste
  • Oil for deep frying

Serves: 2-3

Preparation Time: 45-50 minutes


Preparation Method:

1. Soak rice grains for a minimum of half an hour.

2. Meanwhile, deseed the ripe jackfruits, finely chop them and keep them aside. Tips on how to chop & prep ripe jackfruit

3. Wash the rice grains well after 30 minutes of soaking and drain out all the water completely.

4. Grind rice along with chopped ripe jackfruit, grated coconut, salt, powdered jaggery into a smooth to a little coarse paste, without using any water. We need a thick batter.

5. The more jackfruit you add to the batter, the better your fritters will taste in the end.

6. Adjust the amount of jaggery you add according to your palate, depending on how sweet the ripe jackfruits are & how sweet you would like your fritters/mulik to be. The more jaggery you use, the more watery your batter gets.

7. The batter has to be thick or else it'll absorb more oil on deep frying and the mulik (fritters) gets oily. So, please do not add any water while grinding. Jaggery & jackfruits on grinding give out enough water content to make a paste.

8. Transfer the batter into a bowl, add in semolina if your batter is watery/runny and mix well. If your batter is thick, you can choose to skip semolina. Semolina is added to give a nice texture to these fritters & to make them crispy on the outside.

9. Allow the batter to stand for 5 minutes so that semolina gets soaked up.

10. If your batter is still runny, then add in some more semolina. 

11. Heat up oil for deep frying.

12. Add a spoonful of batter into rolling hot oil and check if it rises to the top of the oil. If they do, then your oil is ready to be used for deep frying. If not wait for 2-3 minutes.

13. Set the heat to medium. Using your fingers, drop in 6-7 lemon sized balls of batter into the hot oil. Deep fry them on medium heat until they're reddish brown & are uniformly fried all around.

14. Make sure you set the heat to medium once the oil's rolling hot. If the flame is on high, then these fritters will be crisp/overcooked on the outside and raw on the inside. If the flame is on low, then they'll tend to absorb more oil.

15. Fry remaining batter to make lemon sized muliks/fritters. Drop them onto a paper towel to drain out excess oil.

16. Serve mulik/fritters piping hot or once they cool down as a snack, and enjoy!

17. Once, they cool down completely, you can store remaining fritters in an airtight container for up to a week and enjoy them as a snack, all day long.


Side Note:

1. You can also add in chopped cashew pieces, chopped fresh coconut pieces to the batter for added crunch, with every bite of mulik/fritter.

2. The sweeter the ripe jackfruits you use to make ponsa mulik, the better they taste. The lesser jaggery you would have to add to the batter, in that case. The more jaggery you add, the more watery your batter gets. 

3. Store the jackfruit seeds and you can make a delicious, spicy, side dish (called as bikanda sukke) out of it. 

4. If you liked this recipe and are a jackfruit fan then you might also like ponsa payasu (jackfruit payasam) and ponsa idli (jackfruit idlis).


Find more fritter (bajo, phodi) recipes here.


Tags: Ponsa mulik, jackfruit fritters, sweet jackfruit dumplings, Konkani cuisine, Konkani food, Konkani recipe, Udupi cuisine, Mangalore food, snack, halasina hannina mulika, mulik recipe.