I have a love hate relationship with jackfruit.
We had a jackfruit tree in our garden back home. I think the soil in our garden must have been rather dubious because most of our fruits and vegetables were just lame. The rambutans were usually tart and tasted unripe no matter how long we left them on the branches. The mangoes bypassed tart and went straight to sour. Our cucumbers never grew beyond pygmy sizes and were, you guessed it, tart. Yes, we ended up having loads of pickles. Our starfruits were the only things that did alright. But then again, they are supposed to be slightly tart. The sugarcane was always slightly dry and bland no matter when we harvested them.
So, our jackfruits were funky tasting. Worse, they were slimy. I hated them as a kid.
I refused to eat them and the only way my grandmother could coax them into me was when they were cooked in curry.
Then, simmered in creamy coconut milk and smothered with spices, the jackfruits turned sweet and the sliminess was no longer an issue.
Thus, I associate jackfruit curry with childhood food. I have not had any for yonks. So when I saw a blog post by SpiceLines, on a recipe for a jackfruit curry adapted from the Amandari resort in Bali, I was intrigued. A flood of childhood memories deluged me such that I suddenly developed a massive craving for it.
The recipe had already been fiddled around a fair bit and since it was created by a Westerner, I was rather dubious. Reading the ingredients list raised even more worries. I grew up on curries and the ingredients list just seem lacking. Still, I was willing to keep an open mind. Furthermore, SpiceLines reported that someone from Singapore had gushed over the dish so I was even more inclined to give it a try.
The recipe actually gave an option of a young jackfruit or papaya curry. I had a some green papaya leftover so I decided to combine the two. Hey, I was trying to clear the pantry. I had some trouble getting young jackfruit from the market so I got the least ripe ones I could.
I was a little rushed for time that day so I went old school. Which meant I did not measure anything and relied on the ancient art of A-Handful-Of-This-And-That-With-A-Guestimation-With-Eye.
Then to my horror, I realised my blender/mixer was kaput. Argh, out came the mortar and pestle. And not a good one too as I lost that in the move. Sigh, I have a crapola, small, wooden one currently. But I am made of resourceful, pioneer gypsy stock so I just improvised. It worked out better this way anyway. I prefer to go old school with my rempah since I can gauge better from smell and feel as I am pounding away when it is just right.
Remember I am cooking for two here so portions are small. Anyway, here goes-
You Don't Know Jack Fruit and Papaya Curry (ha!)
(adapted from SpiceLines which adapted from Gary Tyson at the Amandari, Bali)
Rempah -
Two mid-sized red onions and half a handful of red shallots - I like my rempah slightly juicy and sweet
3/4 handful of garlic cloves
About 1 1/2 inch length of garlic
1/2 handful of buah keras aka candlenut
1/2 tsp tumeric powder
About 1 1/4 tbsp of coriander powder - I really don't know as I just went with smell and texture of the rempah
About 8 chilli padis
Vegetable oil
1. If you are using the mortar and pestle, I advise you to finely chop most of your rempah ingredients so pounding them into a paste will take less time and elbow grease. If using the food processor, you can chop them up coarsely and let the blades do the work for you.
2. I do it by batches so I can gauge the right texture and amount of each ingredient. Add a little of each ingredient and start pounding. Add the oil in parts regardless of whether you are using the mortar and pestle or food processor. The oil helps the rempah form to a nice paste.
3. I cannot tell you how to gauge by smell but you need to watch for a nice paste with still some texture in it. You do not want a puree. If you have somehow made your rempah into a soup-like puree, add some candlenuts. If it is too dry and fibrous, add a little more oil and onion/shallots. If it is dry and fibrous yet strangely greasy, omit the oil and add more onions to soften the rempah. If it is already too oily, add more ingredients.
I have to state here I was rather disturbed that there was no lemongrass, cardamom or cinnamon in the rempah and instead these were only used in the curry. Especially the lemongrass. Also, I would have preferred galangal to ginger. I was uncertain that the flavours would come alive. I was right. Next time I shall add a little of these to the rempah as well.
Curry -
About 6 pieces of jackfruit, seeded and cubed
About a cup of green papaya, peeled, seeded and cubed
1 stalk lemongrass, trimmed of the tough outer leaves, cut to about 4-inch lengths and banged around a couple of times with my trusty pestle
About 4-5 fresh kaffir lime leaves
2 cinnamon sticks - mine were the short kind, more like cassia so I used two
About 1/4 handful cardamon pods - about 8-10 I guess
Coconut milk - I pour enough to make sure the curry sauce covers all the vegetables but does not become a soup
About 1 cup of carrot cut into coarse sticks
About 1 cut of french beans, sectioned into 3 1/2 inch sticks
About 1 cup of cauliflower florets
1. Heat some oil in your pot. I used about 2 tbsp based on the amount of rempah I had
2. Add the rempah and saute gently till the smell becomes so good you start drooling. Let your nose tell you when it's ready. You can't miss it.
3. Add the fruits and stir gently to coat with rempah and cook for about 5 mins.
4. Add the coconut milk, cinnamon sticks, lemongrass, lime leaves and cardamon pods.
5. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat to simmer gently for about half an hour till everything is tender.
6. If your curry is too thick, it could be two things. One, you did not add enough coconut milk. Go add more. Two, your coconut milk is too thick. To dilute, you can add either chicken or vegetable stock (if you want a strictly vegetarian dish) to your curry. Do not add more coconut milk as that's the cause of your problem in the first place.
Be cognizant of the coconut milk you are using. There are some pre-packed coconut milk which is slightly sweet that we use for desserts. Do not use those. If possible, use freshly squeezed coconut milk -not No. 1 or first-squeezed as you will need to dilute those. Canned or packet coconut milk are cool too but just make sure there is no added sugar. The fruits will give more than enough sweetness to your curry.
7. Add the carrots, beans and cauliflower and cook for another 5-7 mins.
8. SpiceLine's recipe asks that you remove the spices but I leave them in as curry tastes better the next day and I want my spices. So I ignored that. This is where I season to taste. If it is too sweet, add more salt. You really do not need that much pepper in this as it cannot assert itself against all the spices. Just enough to co-mingle happily with its brethren but not for supremacy, OK?
9. Serve with rice, all nice and hot and comforting.
Truly this dish tastes better the next day. If it can last to the the day after, even better. The fruits and vegetables can start melting into the curry but it's still super yummy on rice.
I must admit this recipe was a disappointment. It is what Singaporeans would call an ang-moh curry. Which just cannot stand up to the Asian palate. It is too weak and the spices are not balanced enough. I also made the mistake or following the recipe and not using the amount of chilli padis I wanted. I really should stick to my instincts more.
The most pleasing thing about this curry is its golden hue. It is a pleasant curry but not outstanding. In fact I think a lot of Asians might scoff at it for being weak and pale pretender. I enjoyed it but I think my memories enjoyed it more as I kept harking back to my childhood with every golden mouthful of nostalgia. But my taste buds reproached me as I remembered my grandmother's jackfruit curries filled with the harvest of home.
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