Jacking up jackfruit: Snack on kathal this monsoon

Pushpesh Pant

Long years ago, good friend and gifted Chef Devinder Kumar, who is the culinary director at Le Méridien, New Delhi, invited me to help in designing a curated monsoon menu that showcased seasonal recipes from all over India. It was in the course of this work that I stumbled upon almost forgotten (outside their place of birth!) delicacies like echorer kalia (unripe jackfruit curry) from Bengal and jack verde picante (tender raw jackfruit bhaji) from Goa. We have long searched for a spicy snack created with kathal — something resembling a tikka, recalling the all-time favourite pakora to nibble and gobble when the dark rain-bearing clouds unburden themselves.

We were overjoyed to encounter just what the self-taught doctors had prescribed at Bhanas, a most unusual eatery in Dwarka run by three enterprising women who have entered the entrepreneurial stage as chefs. They represent the states of Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand.

Kathal is prepared in a dozen different ways and relished both ripe as fruit and unripe as vegetable. It is pickled and the seeds are put to excellent use as a nutty side dish.

What is most impressive is that these ladies aren’t afraid to step out of their comfort zone and experiment with fusion that hitherto has been the forte of celebrity chefs. Sunita Choubey and Kirti Jha play around with this monsoon kathal recipe with ingredients like soya sauce and cornflour slurry.

Come to think of it, who treats soy sauce as alien these days? Chow mein sold by tonnes on the streets and elsewhere relies on it for flavouring. But tinkering with vegetarian oyster sauce, me thinks, was a stroke of inspired genius. Incidentally, none of these is hard to come by nowadays and can be easily bought. The three chillies lend the dish different levels of pungency. In times gone by, those who toiled in the kitchen avoided handling jackfruit, as skinning and cutting it into bite-sized chunks was arduous. Times have changed and one can buy the required quantity skinned and pre-cut from vegetable vendors.

While we thank the ladies from the bottom of our heart for sharing this recipe, readers are welcome to tweak it as per taste. Kathal in its snacky avatar will certainly enhance your enjoyment of varsha ritu!

Three-chilli kathal

Ingredients

Kathal 1 kg

Cornflour 200 gm

Soy sauce 2 tbsp

Ginger-garlic paste 2 tbsp

Fresh red chilli (achari) 150 gm

Fresh green chilli (achari) 150 gm

Dry red chilli 2-3

Red chilli paste 2 tbsp

Garlic 50 gm

Oyster sauce 2 tbsp (or a vegetarian substitute)

Cornflour slurry 2 tbsp

Oil to cook and fry 1/2 cup

Salt As per taste

Method

• Roughly chop red, green achari mirch and boil the kathal. Dry it out on a kitchen towel. Marinate with ginger-garlic paste, soy sauce, cornflour & salt for 15 minutes.
• Heat oil in a kadahi. Deep fry the kathal till it is well browned on medium high flame.
• Remove with a slotted spoon, pressing with the back of the ladle to drain excess oil. Place on a platter and keep it warm till required.
• Raise the flame and put garlic slices and whole red chillies. Stir fry briskly till the chillies change colour. Add the kathal, red chilli paste, soy sauce and vegetarian oyster sauce. Reduce the flame to low medium and continue cooking till everything is well blended.
• Add the chopped chillies and cook for a minute before adding the cornflour slurry. Cook on low flame for a minute. Remove from stove. Garnish with green onions. Enjoy without any accompaniment, or as you like it.