Post by PattiA on Aug 12, 2017 12:16:12 GMT -5
Has anyone experimented with Jackfruit? A few weeks ago I saw a whole jackfruit in Whole Foods. That started a conversation about it with a few friends. So last week three of us had an Jackfruitapalooza Cooking Playdate. Most jackfruit recipes are vegan, but for recipes that used dairy, we opted for "real" dairy instead of vegan dairy. It was a fun and delicious day. For canned jackfruit we used Trader Joe's canned green jackfruit in brine. Most recipes call for canned in water, but the brined was what was easy for me to find. I need to look for canned in water at Asian markets. We also got a whole jackfruit from an Asian market and tackled butchering the 14 pound beast. It was easier and not as messy as we thought it would be. However, we did do it on a table outside that was covered with brown paper bags. And all the mess went into my compost bin.
The fresh jackfruit has a strange sweet odor. It clung to us, but was not unpleasant. There is a substance that sticks to your hands kind of like the starch from butternut squash sometimes does. It also sticks to your knives. We read about oiling hands and knives before starting to butcher, but we got excited about the butchering and were chopping away before we remembered that part. However, the tips we read about rubbing your hands and knives with oil before trying to wash off the resin worked beautifully. Some of the knives used to butcher the fruit dried before we washed them but rubbing the blades with oil worked great to remove the dried crud.
From a fresh jackfruit you get seeds, very slippery and fleshy orange pods, and more meaty flesh. The 14 pound fruit was the smallest one the market had. We roasted the seeds and used all of the meaty flesh in recipes, we used some of the orange pods in recipes and froze the rest. Some markets sell pieces of jackfruit. A whole jackfruit produces so much flesh. I'd go with pieces next time. But we really wanted the fun of working with a whole fruit.
I have a Pinterest board of Jackfruit recipes and information on butchering. The crew consisted of three omnivores (two cooks and one taste tester) and one vegetarian.
We made:
My DH is a meaty guy. He was not home while we were cooking, but he and I had the Bulgogi tacos for dinner that evening and he enjoyed them. So, I'm thinking that jackfruit might be a good way for us to have more vegetarian meals.
Here's links to instagram photos of some of the fun. Some of these have multiple photos in the set.
The fresh jackfruit has a strange sweet odor. It clung to us, but was not unpleasant. There is a substance that sticks to your hands kind of like the starch from butternut squash sometimes does. It also sticks to your knives. We read about oiling hands and knives before starting to butcher, but we got excited about the butchering and were chopping away before we remembered that part. However, the tips we read about rubbing your hands and knives with oil before trying to wash off the resin worked beautifully. Some of the knives used to butcher the fruit dried before we washed them but rubbing the blades with oil worked great to remove the dried crud.
From a fresh jackfruit you get seeds, very slippery and fleshy orange pods, and more meaty flesh. The 14 pound fruit was the smallest one the market had. We roasted the seeds and used all of the meaty flesh in recipes, we used some of the orange pods in recipes and froze the rest. Some markets sell pieces of jackfruit. A whole jackfruit produces so much flesh. I'd go with pieces next time. But we really wanted the fun of working with a whole fruit.
I have a Pinterest board of Jackfruit recipes and information on butchering. The crew consisted of three omnivores (two cooks and one taste tester) and one vegetarian.
We made:
- Buffalo Jackfruit Dip - this was a huge hit. We did not use vegan dairy products in this. None of us are dairy free and all prefer real dairy. We doubled the Frank's hot sauce. The spinach is a nice addition to this dip.
- Jackfruit Kerala Curry - this was delicious, but we mistakenly used the fleshy pods instead of the meaty flesh and the fleshy pods cooked down too much and had no body. We all loved the flavor of this curry. My friend who has a wealth of Asian markets near her got fresh curry leaves, which I have never had. We want to make it again with the meaty flesh or canned jackfruit.
- Bulgogi Jackfruit Street Tacos - we used the fresh jackfruit for this recipe and we cooked it in the Instant Pot (15 minutes) instead of the crockpot. (Canned jackfruit cooks so quickly that to me using a crockpot and cooking for a long time doesn't make much sense.) The recipe produced a lot of liquid. Next time, I would do canned jackfruit, but cook it on the stove top using the method in the BBQ Pulled Jackfruit recipe. The brussels sprout slaw in this recipe is fabulous. Even if you don't make the bulgogi jackfruit, make the slaw that goes with these tacos.
- Jackfruit Mint Smoothie - we used regular (not light) coconut milk because that is what I normally buy. We added more mint and while I was out picking mint, I decided to add some fresh Thai Basil and some lemongrass. Delicious!!!! But with the regular coconut milk, this smoothie was super rich and filling. Now I understand why the recipe calls for light coconut milk. I'll use regular coconut milk and water instead if light coconut milk. Our jackfruit was not frozen so we added ice. I'll definitely be using the frozen jackfruit pods for this recipe.
- Maple Peppered Jackfruit Bacon - The canned jackfruit is in small pieces so mine came out more like bacon shards than bacon slices. I made this before the crew arrived and we had it as part of our breakfast. Everyone liked it. I thought it was too sweet. I would leave out the molasses next time. I'm not a fan of liquid smoke, I used some smoked paprika. It was a fine line between as crispy as I wanted the pieces and burned. Careful watching required for this.
- Barbecued Jackfruit Sandwiches with Avocado Slaw - we made two versions of this because we wanted to compare barbecued jackfruit made with canned and fresh jackfruit. The one made with the fresh jackfruit was sweeter and softer in texture. A little too sweet for me, but I really liked the texture. We used Dinosaur BBQ Sensational Slathering Sauce for the bbq sauce. (Pretty much the only commercial bbq sauce that I like). Fast and easy. It would be great to bring to a party.
- Roasted jackfruit nuts - the jackfruit has a lot of chestnut-like nuts hidden in the fleshy pods. We roasted them in the oven, then peeled them (how did I end up with that job?), tossed the with a little oil and TJ's Everything Bagel mix and put them back in the oven for a few minutes. A fun snack. If we had put more than one person on the peeling it would have been better because once they cooled they were hard to peel.
My DH is a meaty guy. He was not home while we were cooking, but he and I had the Bulgogi tacos for dinner that evening and he enjoyed them. So, I'm thinking that jackfruit might be a good way for us to have more vegetarian meals.
Here's links to instagram photos of some of the fun. Some of these have multiple photos in the set.
http://instagram.com/p/BXlvzwUAZD1
http://instagram.com/p/BXlK5EEl-Wk
http://instagram.com/p/BXlK5EEl-Wk
