WE love Jackfruit. All of us - including Kobra!
Officially, it's the biggest tree fruit in the world, weighing up to 36kgs and growing to 3ft. We couldn't get enough of its sweet bubblegum flavour when we were living last year in Brazil.
It's a seasonal fruit in the tropics - prickly on the outside and incredibly sticky inside it's like glue. But the trouble you need to go to in order to devour this fruit is well worth it.
An important tip: oil the knife and your fingers well before cutting and eating. And when it comes to cleaning, use oil and not water - otherwise you will be scrubbing for a long time.
Also worth considering is there are two types of jackfruit - one being sweet and the other milder and firmer in texture.
While we prefer eating it straight after cutting it open, jackfruit can also be cooked and has a chicken-like texture. It's also nutritious - low in cholesterol, a good source of fibre and vitamin C. The large seeds can also be used - boiled, crushed and mixed in a food processor to make hummus.
Here in Kerala, India, we are in the heart of jackfruit country. This is where the fruit originated. I was walking back from Varkala town a few days ago when I noticed some sliced jackfruit on the roadside.
I didn't want to eat fruit exposed to traffic, so asked the gentleman nearby if he was selling whole ones. He walked me to his garden, showed me a large tree and asked me to pick one, which I did.
He hacked it down and it fell with a thud. Wiping away the sticky milk-like substance that comes from the stem, he put the 'beast' in a sturdy bag and charged me R70 (about £1).
It took about four-five days to ripen and then went soft very quickly. When we cut it open it was already over-ripe in areas. Luckily, there was still plenty to go around.
Indians might consider me an exception, because they joke that most visitors from the west have never before seen a jackfruit and wouldn't know what to do with it. They say that when tourists eat bananas, they remove the skin and eat the fruit. So when tourists slice open a jackfruit, Indians like to tease that Europeans peel off and throw away the fruit and eat the seed!
You say this now, but wait till you've eaten mangosteen, salak, and (maybe) durien (a.k.a The King of Fruits).
Posted by: Bill M | 12 February 2012 at 11:39 PM