Raw Jackfruit Curry (Kadge Gashi)
One of Konkani cuisine's favourite veggie is raw jackfruit. Fondly called as kadgi in Konkani. :-) And one of Konkani cuisine's favourite curry is raw jackfruit curry. A coconut based spicy curry made using raw jackfruits. This curry is called kadgi gashi in Konkani. Raw jackfruit curry is part of the feasts served for special occasions, festivals during summer. Kadgi gashi is usually prepared using either black or white chickpeas.
During festivals and functions in temples, they usually use white chickpeas to make kadgi gashi and I love kadgi gashi with them. Kadgi in Konkani means raw jackfruit and ghasi/gashi means a spicy, coconut based curry in Konkani.
Come summer and it's jackfruit everywhere in Karnataka! And Konkani's love jackfruit raw and ripened. We use it in every way possible in Konkani cuisine to make a variety of dishes.
Konkani's prepare umpteen number of dishes using raw jackfruit. Some of them are:
- Kadgi gashi, kadgi randayi - coconut based curries of raw jackfruit with peas, chickpeas or any other pulse. Both are Konkani cuisine favourites.
- A dry side dish made using raw jackfruits and coconut masala is kadgi chakko, another Konkani cuisine favourite.
- We also make yummy raw jackfruit pickles called as kadgi nonche, kadgi adgai in Konkani.
- Kadgi ambat, kodel are again coconut based curries prepared with raw jackfruit, lentils and onions.
- Amazingly, yummy fritters called as kadgi phodi are also prepared from raw jackfruit.
For more raw jackfruit/kadgi recipes look here.
Picking raw jackfruit to prepare this curry - kadgi gashi:
Tender raw jackfruits are best suited to make this curry kadgi gashi. Tender most ones aren't preffered. Tender raw jackfruits to raw jackfruits that aren't fully developed or aren't completely mature will do to make this dish. You know the stage of development raw jackfruit is in by it's size and by looking at the thorns on the peel of raw jackfruit. Tender raw jackfruits have tiny thorns very close to one another on the peel. As they grow and mature, the thorns grow in size and grow apart.
Pick raw jackfruits in the pic 1 over raw jackfruits in the pic 2 below: The thorns on the peel of raw jackfruit in pic 1 are an indication that the raw jackfruit is still in its growth and hasn't matured.
Essentially pick raw jackfruit whose seeds inside are still soft and are still growing.
Pic 1: These raw jackfruits in the pic 1 below are best suited to make kadgi gashi.
This raw jackfruit below has almost reached it's maturity. The thorns on the peel are spaced out and are fully grown.
Ingredients:
- 1/4 - 1/2 of a raw jackfruit - about 2 cups of cubed raw jackfruit.
- 1/2 cup chickpeas, white or black - soaked over night.
- 1 cup grated coconut
- 6-8 dried red chillies
- 1 lemon sized tamarind
- 2 tablespoons of oil for seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds
- 2 leaflets of curry leaves
- Salt to taste
Serves: 2-3
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
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 & cooker.
- Few bowls to hold chopped raw jackfruits and the discarded skin.
- Tissue papers
Preparation Method:
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 to prevent jackfruit gum from sticking to your knife, fingers and hands.
3. Chop raw jackfruit in the middle into 2 halves, wipe clean the white sap that drips off using a tissue paper.
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.
If there's excess gum oozing out of the jack fruit, clean it using a paper towel. Or it'll make your chopping board messy and sticky.
5. Chop off the 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.
The inner jackfruit core is the hard, white portion at the top of each piece.
6. Then chop raw jackfruit into cubes and add them into a bowl containing water.
7. Pressure cook them with salt and 1 cup of water for just 1 whistle. Do not overcook raw jackfruit. We want soft, well cooked jackfruit. If they overcook they don't hold shape and disintegrate.
Add 2 tablespoons of oil while cooking raw jackfruit to help you clean your pressure cooker easily later on. Oil prevents any gum from sticking to your cooker.
Cooked raw jackfruit looks like these:
8. Transfer cooked raw jackfruit along with the stock used to cook it, into a cooking vessel.
9. Soak chickpeas overnight to fasten their cooking. If you forget to soak them the previous night then you can add hot boiling water and keep them aside for 30 minutes to few hours (depending on the time you have) to accelerate the process of soaking. This trick applies to all whole grains like dried peas, black eyed peas, green gram and any other pulse. They'll be ready for cooking in half an hour. The longer you soak them, the faster they'll cook.
10. Pressure cook chickpeas until done, for about 3-4 whistles with 1.5 cups of water. Do not add salt while pressure cooking them or they won't cook.
11. Add cooked chickpeas along with the stock used to cook them, into the cooking vessel containing cooked raw jackfruit.
Meanwhile get the coconut masala for the curry ready.
Preparing the masala:
12. Fry dried red chillies for 1-2 minutes or till fragrant in a tempering pan. Add few drops of oil to aid the frying process.
13. Allow fried red chillies to cool down completely and then grind them along with 1/4 teaspoon of mustard seeds, grated coconut, tamarind and salt into a fine paste using just enough water as required.
14. Transfer this ground masala into the cooking vessel containing cooked raw jackfruit and chickpeas and mix well.
15. Add about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water if required to bring the consistency of the curry to that of a gravy consistency. The consistency of this curry is usually thick to semi-thick.
Also, the curry thickens with time, so you can keep it a little watery in the beginning.
16. Check and adjust salt. Bring the curry to boil.
17. Once the curry comes to boil, simmer the curry for few minutes until the rawness of the masala goes off. Then remove it off heat.
Seasoning:
18. Heat oil in a tempering pan, add in remaining mustard seeds. When they begin to splutter, add in curry leaves and let them sizzle for few seconds.
19. Remove it off heat and add this seasoning to the curry and mix well.
20. Serve the curry hot with a bowl of steaming hot rice.
Side note: If you need extra thick curry like the one that's served in temples during functions, marriages and festivals then you can do one of the 3 things below:
a. Add few rice grains while grinding the masala.
b. Add rice flour to the curry and mix well such that there are no clumps of rice flour in the curry. Then brind the curry to boil.
c. Add few cooked chickpeas to the masala while grinding it.
Kadgi gashi with black chickpeas:
For more Konkani cuisine curry recipes look here.
Tags: curry, gravy, ghashi, gashi, lunch, dinner, spicy, chickpeas, chane ghashi, festival food, functions, temple food, raw jackfruit, kadgi, Konkani recipe, Konkani dish, Konkani cuisine, Udupi cuisine, Mangalore food, Konkani food, kadge, ugadi
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