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Jackfruit

Homemade Bone Broth And Storage

BONE BROTH
When it comes to healthy food, bone broth is priceless. Best broths are homemade and cooked for 24 hours.
The acquisition of Crock.Pot, resolved the 24 hour slow cooking requirement. But storing in the freezer was a challenge.
That’s when I found these freezer friendly mason jars. Just move the frozen broth to the refrigerator’s general area, the previous day of enjoying it hot.

ചക്കക്കുരു പുഴുക്ക്. A Jackfruit Seed Dish and an innovation.

This is new, my innovation and hence I have the patent. Later when scientists study this and confirm it as a super duper food. Please remember what I said.

Chakka puzhukk is already a super food which could even cure diabetes. The a Puzhukku using jackfruit seeds couldn’t be anything different. Hence the idea.

Take, over a half kilo of fresh jackfruit seeds and boil to facilitate removing the outer cover. Cut lengthwise into small pieces and after washing boil with a spoon of turmeric powder to a softer consistency.

Into a Nutribullet or other mixer add grated flesh of half a coconut, 4 green chilies, 8 shallots, 8 cloves of garlic, some ginger, one spoon of cumin seeds and curry leaves and mix into a coarse from.

In a hard bottom vessel pour two tablespoons of coconut oil and add one spoon of mustard seeds, 1/4 cup of rice, 4 red chilies and curry leaves. When the mustard seeds and rice pops, transfer the boiling seeds, the items from Nutribullet and stir well.

Reduce fire and allow the contents to cook well. Add two eggs and mix well. Add salt to taste and reduce the contents to a coarse puzhukk consistency.

The dish is ready which can be eaten with meat curry or vegetable kurma.

Seasonal Fruits. Ideal To Go For and Suitable to the Purse.

For a fruit lover like me, oranges and apples are likely items in the fruit basket. But I have taken a conscious decision to try and get what is seasonal and locally available.

Perhaps there’s a scientific explanation as I have read it in some of the diet/ wellness articles. Of course, I didn’t see much of the details on the science behind, but it’s certainly less expensive.

Some of them, like the pappaya and water melon in the picture could be pesticide free also. Though seasonal and locally available, the mangoes and grapes will need that extra washing before consuming.

Including fruits in one’s diet is good for wellness. There’s a tendency to go soft on fruits in the process of avoiding sugar. However, I am of the school considering whole fruits (not in juice form) as good to go for.

I usually break my intermittent fasting with some fruits. This is a major breakthrough as we have a tendency to eat fruits after a meal when the stomach is full. Wellness recommendations are against having fruits after a meal.

A star absence in the picture is jackfruit. This is the season and they are devoid of any chemicals. And I live in Kerala where the availability should be plenty. Most important- I like it very much.

But jackfruit is health food, difficult to pluck from tall trees etc etc and hence one has to take an effort to get to it. Which I must now.

Jackfruit is Now The Health Food.

This jackfruit tree is in my sister’s house and it’s a most pleasing thing to see such a relatively small and young tree bearing these giant fruits.

Like coconut oil, jackfruit is also going international. I say going because I consider both coconut and jackfruit native to my childhood environment.

When British Prime Minister Theresa May visited India, the grand dinner menu had jackfruit biriyani in it. Apparently this biriyani is a craze in London restaurants.

Admittedly, it’s not something we have tried. We have been busy with the numerous uses of jackfruit and the tree, like the solid wood, leaves in Ayurveda treatment, fruit from its formation stage to the ripened and even the seeds.

Then the finding that jackfruit cures diabetes! Wow!

So jackfruit biriyani is in the radar, with or without any meat.

And of course, I have to plant a few of these lovelies.

There are some good grains.

Most people, world over, eat grains as the main meal. Wheat and rice are staple diet from the beginning.

Modern grains, however are not so good according to experts. In fact the modified wheat, available now is a health hazard. And even the rice is made bad by processing for attractiveness and packaging.

Diet related epidemics (obesity, diabetes etc) and virus related pandemic are serious threats to the well-being and even existence of mankind.

The biggest challenge for someone to adopt a healthy diet is to replace the not so good wheat, rice etc with some beneficial substitutes.

Here I am presenting one of the good grains, quinoa (pronounced kin-wah). Try this tasty dish.

Boil some cleaned and soaked quinoa in double the quantity of water with a pinch of salt, till it’s done. Use more water if the desired consistency is not achieved.

Prepare some sautéed vegetables in butter (onion, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots etc with a sprinkle of pepper powder and added leafy herbs). Break one or two eggs and mix well till done.

Add the cooked quinoa and top it with cooked meat mince or shredded chicken.

Vegetarians, just drop adding eggs and meat.

Enjoy the delicious dish as substitute for rice or chapatti meal. It’s keto friendly too.

Jackfruit. End of Season Delight.

One of the things I miss with the decision to stay back in Bangalore, is the abundance of good quality jackfruit in Kerala. And along with that the thrill of making chakka undas and chakka chips.

Jackfruits are available in Bangalore too. Pealed ones, sold at roadsides are not very welcome in this virus times. And without proper tools, buying the whole fruit needed more courage than what I could muster.

Not quite though. Horticulture unit HOPCOM of the state government, brings fresh fruits and vegetables to the compound, twice a week. And while buying fruits and vegetables, I saw a lady asking for half of the jackfruit. The aroma and colour were too hard to resist and I took the other half.

Good, brave decision indeed. The fruit is very fresh and delightfully tasty. And the Chakkakuru (seeds) make unique dishes.

And they say, jackfruit is health food.

Quinoa, the healthy grain!

With a lot of focus on health and wellness this season, I have been adjusting my diet in a fairly big way.

Grains have been the Waterloo, with modern wheat touted as very bad and staple food rice full of carbs etc.

And the highly recommended Kumut, Teff and Sour Gel, well no one seems to have heard about them in my locality.

That leaves Quinoa (pronounced Kin-Wah) and barley as the ones familiar. Well, we could get some Rye, but I am not yet a good bread maker!

Namdaris, with two fancy stores, just walking distance of us have been good source of organic stuff. But to my dismay Quinoa was not on shelf.

That’s when I looked in Amazon and got this 1.4 Kg jar and now I have good alternatives to my salad, and other preparations to complement my Intermittent Fasting.

Healthy, Traditional and Exotic!

I am always amazed at my wife’s ability to cook many exciting dishes simultaneously when she’s in the kitchen.

I am not a cook, but I have the passion for it. My focus is to make exotic, traditional and healthy items. And I used to do that by making one item once in a while.

Yesterday I decided to make a change. To do a multitasking, like my wife. And here’s the result.

1. Hulled barley boiled, 2. Chakkakuru mezhukkupuratty and 3. A copy of manga thera.

With health in focus and since the usual grains like wheat and rice are unhealthy, I followed expert advice and made barley rice. It’s almost like boiled brown rice with a welcome nutty taste.

Chakkakuru mezhukkupuratty is as traditional as karimeen fry to a Keralaite. This dish of jackfruit seeds is so very good.

And manga thera (Mango Bars) is the most exotic and time consuming item. Here’s a quick fix, just to prove that next summer, I could be making the weeks long process of real manga thera.

On the whole a very satisfying day of multitasking in cooking.