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Goan Jackfruit Curry – Totally Tropical!

Posted on March 14, 2018 by leroy watson

This curry is totally over the top in all the right ways!! Flavours, intensity, creaminess, coconut! India cooking rocks my world, how about you?

Making things like this masala paste at home brings any kitchen to life with incredible colour’s and fragrance. Apparently it’s spring, but looking out the window here in Wales, we’re in serious need of some rainbow food! Some zest and zing, brightness on our plates. This Goan curry is perfect for that!

This type of curry takes me right back to Goa, sitting in my favourite little place, right under many jackfruit trees, and eating homemade curries with fresh mango juices. Not a bad life!! It wasn’t jackfruit season, but they were hanging off the trees like strange bright green, spiky alien space craft. If you’ve seen one, you’ll now what I mean.

This recipe is based on a selection of curries I ate almost every day for lunch. They were always homemade and you can really taste the difference, the ingredients taste real!! The cooks loved to use coriander seeds, giving their slightly citrus flavour to the curry. I’m not sure if this is classically Goan, but it is how the lovely families cooked. The cuisine of Goa is so diverse, see my post here, ‘A Taste of Goan Cuisine’ for more Goan food tales.

JACKFRUIT?

Is still a new ingredient for most of us. It doesn’t get much more exotic, it’s a very strange fruit. I love it!

Here we use the unripe jackfruit, which many say is a good meat sub, you can also eat the ripe jackfruit which is more like a yellow flower. Both are available in the UK in tins. The ripe jackfruit is better suited to desserts, makes an incredible ice cream and is delicious eaten raw.

You will find many street vendours around the world, in Thailand, India etc expertly dissecting the giant fruits (the can get massive) and serving the yellow, slightly rubbery flowers on small trays. For a few pennies you can enjoy the totally unique flavour of jackfruits, some say it has a hint of juicy fruit bubblegum in there. I get that.

But we’re all about the unripe version here, the one many people are using to replicate pulled pork. It works a treat and meat eaters are easily fooled by it. They certainly enjoy it!

Some people have said that we should not eat such an exotic ingredient regularly in the UK. I understand that, but we all love bananas and pineapples and jackfruit I think will always be a treat ingredient for me. Something we use seldomly, a very tasty kitchen curve ball.

There is a slight sourness to some Goan curries, it seems to be a legacy of the Portugese, who like adding vinegar to dishes. The sourness here comes in the form of the tamarind, but you can also add a little lemon juice to the curry at the end to give it that extra little twang!

Recipe Notes
Tamarind can be found in world or Indian food stores in its dried state, with the seeds still present. I like it like that. You can also buy the paste in supermarkets.

Chillies are up to you. Jane is not a huge fan of chilli, so I really tone things down. I would go for the green chillies and around 4 red dried chillies in this curry. Remember, that many dried red chillies are milder. If you use the equivalent in chilli flakes for example, you may have an incendiary curry on your hands.

If you don’t have jackfruit, you can substitute it with any vegetable you like or even a tin of black eyed beans. I really loved the Goan curries made with black eyed beans. Tofu or tempeh would of course be sensational here.

I left the jackfruit pieces whole here, but you can chop off the stem if you like and break the jackfruit up into smaller chunks. Like the BBQ Pulled Jackfruit recipe we did a while ago, see here.

Goan Jackfruit Curry

The Bits – For 4

350g squash – 1/2 medium-sized butternut squash, or carrots/ sweet potatoes
280g jackfruit (1 tin, well drained)
1/2 small onion (finely chopped)
2 tbs curry leaves
2 large pieces of cinnamon bark or 2 inch cinnamon stick
1 tbs coconut oil
2 teas sea salt

Masala Paste
70g grated/ dessicated coconut
5 cloves garlic (roughly chopped)
1/2 small onion (finely chopped)
3 teas tamarind paste or 1/2 small lemon (juice)
2 heaped tbs fresh ginger (chopped)
2 1/2 teas coriander seeds
1 1/2 teas cumin seeds
12 peppercorns
2-6 dried red chillies (mild)
1 teas turmeric

1 tin coconut milk
100ml water

2 green chillies (optional)

1 tbs coconut sugar, brown rice syrup, sweetener of your choice.

Garnish
Toasted coconut
Coriander leaves

Do It

Press the jackfruit between kitchen paper to draw out most of the water. This leaves more room for flavours to infuse and get in.

Put all masala ingredients into a blender, I use a small blender (I have one that attaches to a stick blender), I find it easier to do this in a smaller blender.

Blitz up and gradually add roughly 125 ml coconut milk to the masala as you blitz and scrape down the sides of the blender until all is combined. You should have a smooth sauce, the better and more powerful your blender, the smoother the paste. Don’t worry about a few chunks, in Goa, the chunks of coconut are a nice surprise!

In a large saucepan, heat the oil and add the onions, cinnamon, salt and curry leaves, saute for 4 minutes. Then add the squash, jackfruit and masala paste, plus the leftover coconut milk from the tin and 150ml water. The green chillies can go in now if you’re using them.

Stir and bring to a simmer, cover and cook gently for 40 minutes. Until the squash and jackfruit are nice and tender, adding more hot water to thin out the sauce as needed.

Stir in your sweetener and check that you’re happy with the seasoning.

Serve topped with coriander and toasted coconut, with your favourite Indian rice and salad combo. Here’s some ideas that we’ve cooked in the past:

Cooling Watermelon, Tofu & Mint Salad

Toasted Cashew & Green Pepper Pulao

Quick Carrot & Ginger Pickle

Foodie Fact

Jackfruit is high in fibre, helping us to detox which in turn makes us glow! It also contains a good amount of carbohydrates, keeping us fully charged with energy and is loaded up with vitamin C and some potassium. Jackfruit seeds are a good source of protein and vitamin A.

Categories: Curries, gluten-free, healthy, Nutrition, photography, plant-based, Recipes, Travel, Vegan | Tags: Goa, indian food, low fat, vegan recipes | Leave a comment

A Taste of Goan Cuisine and Papaya Paradise

Posted on February 4, 2015 by leroy watson

Papaya Paradise - Papaya, cashews and a drop of coconut milk. A fruity delight.

Papaya Paradise – Papaya, cashews and a drop of coconut milk. A tropical tickle.

Paradise for me involves papaya, cashews and coconut. Maybe a beach and a few palm trees lolling in the background. Put all those in a bowl (minus the salt water, sand and chewy leaves) you are approaching my idea of a fruit-based nirvana. We are in Goa and all of these things are plentiful, there are stalls that enforce coconuts on you with each passing, men gifting papayas to you on a regular basis and cashews, the size of small curved chipolatas, are sold for peanuts. Also, it is not mango season in India, so there is no fruity conflict for me, the papaya reigns supreme.

Peter (the wonderful man who looks after the apartment we are staying in) gifted us the largest and ripest papaya I have ever clapped eyes on yesterday. Carving it is something like hollowing out a canoe from a large orange tree trunk. Peter obviously has a secret local supplier, I’ve never seen a papaya like this is the stalls by the side of the road. It would take up half the stall!

I am not sure if you’re going to be able to get a decent papaya in Europe and beyond. Maybe try a Caribbean or Asian shop, you know the one, the Aladdin’s cave of interesting ingredients from all corners of the world. The little space that transports you to Africa, Jamaica, Thailand and Pakistan just by the power of the brands they stock, the occasional aroma and random, unknown, packet of semi-illicit looking spice that just has to be experimented with.

Se Cathedral - the largest cathedral in Asia (with the largest bell also)

Se Cathedral – dedicated to Saint Catherine, the largest cathedral in Asia (with the largest bell also)

Goa is a magical land, totally different from the rest of India, the cuisine is very interesting, a mixture of many things, Indian and Portugese especially. Each dish changes from region to region and this is not a huge state by Indian standards.
I have been reticent to cook much in the apartment, not wanting to stock up on loads of spices and ingredients, we are only here a short time and whenever I travel I always end up with kilos of half used packets and sachets lurking in the depths of my backpack. This time, I’m trying not to waste a thing.

Tonight I will try something like a Goan Curry, which normally has a good tang to it, created by adding toddy vinegar or tamarind. Adding vinegar to food was the main influence of the Portugese who were here for hundreds of years, in fact, Vasco de Gama landed in 1498 and they hung around until well into the 17th century. Old Goa had population larger than Lisbon or London at that time. The Portugese also brought some other quite important staples across the waves; namely, chilies and potato, along with some very common spices, especially nutmeg, which the Goans love to use liberally in savoury dishes. The Portugese also influenced the Goan desserts, many resemble the flans and tortas of the Iberian Peninsula. Most of our local friends, living around the apartment have Portugese ancestory and could actually emigrate to Portugal if they wished. Interestingly, most of them have the last name ‘De Souza’, there are a few ‘Courtinho’s’, ‘Perrera’s’ and so on.

Dad does an Abbey Road Impression – in front of the Bom Jesus Cathedral, Old Goa (‘Bom’ means ‘good’ in Portugese.

Goa is mainly divided between Christian and Hindu (with a small population of Muslims), they have lived in harmony since the beginning and even share some festival days. Religious background affects the way that dishes are prepared, one Xacutti or Kodi will differ greatly depending on the faith involved. Goan cuisine is incredibly traditional and diverse, awe inspiring really. I have never tasted anything like the Vegetable Xacutti I had yesterday in the excellent ‘Viva Panjim!’. A restaurant tucked down a side alley in a sedate quarter of the capital city, Panjim. ‘Viva Panjim!’ is located in the old Fountainhas area of the city, with many colonial looking buildings forming small quiet alleyways and nooks. In this place you can really see what things would have looked like under Portugese rule. My Xacutti involved alot of roasted coconut and was heavy on the warming spices, especially cinnamon and clove, there was definitely some kind of nutmeg/ mace going on in there as well . Dad opted for a Kingfish Goan Curry (like a ‘Vindalau’ – as they call it here), which has a vibrantly red coloured sauce which contained; Kashmiri chillies, tamarind, lots of onions and garlic, cumin seeds and tomatoes. It looked sensational. All of this served in an old colonial home with slow fans and hand carved furniture. The owner Madam Linda D’Souza sat at a desk overseeing things and when we showed an interest in the cuisine, how it was prepared (I was digging for a recipe or two of course) she gifted us a beautiful cook book, packed with the history of Goan culture and very personalised recipes from local home cooks and chefs. There are even diagrams of how to climb a coconut tree and work a rice paddy.

In ‘Viva Pajim!’ one of our finest dining experiences to date

Goa has no end of old school hippy joints that sell homemade tofu or seitan, pancakes, vegan cakes etc which was fine for a couple of meals (Bean Me Up, Blue Tao, Whole Bean Cafe and the legendary German Bakery were particular favourites) but we are now definitely in the hunt for more Goan delicacies. The only problem is we’ll have to leave the beaches and head inland, to the small towns to find the real deal. It seems that travelers/ tourists are not really into the local wonders. Which is a real shame. We have been invited by two real old school gents, Patrick and Peter (who run a tiny bar beneath our place) to their home for a home cooked (vegan!) dinner on Sunday. Something we are both very excited about. Will keep you posted.