everyday curry : Kathal ki bhujia | jackfruit stir fry with pepper and dry pomegranate powder

After sharing the achari kathal ki subzi with you, I was going through the kathal (Jack fruit) pictures in my albums and found at four more recipes that needed to be shared here. I know I have been very irregular here but I promise everything will be shared sooner or later.

This kathal ki bhujia is so good you would cook it more frequently for two reasons. One, it is fairly easy to cook once the peeling and chopping is done and two, it is a light curry (sookhi subzi) that can be eaten everyday easily. Kathal subzi is known as a spicy heavy curry normally, but we do cook very light curries with kathal too, Kathal ka dopyaza is a fine example of a light kathal curry.

I will tell you chopping kathal is not to tough. Yes it does take some time but most good things come at a price. Most vegetable vendors will peel and chop it for you if you ask them, but do that only if you are planning to cook kathal the same day or the next day. Else, just tell them to give you a thick slice of the jack fruit like the below picture.

Once you have this slice, just grease your hands and peel off the thick skin. Remove the inner pith too.

Now place the moon shaped jack fruit slice on a chopping board and chop into pieces of required size. For this kathal ki bhujia we need really thin slivers.

Separate the seeds and remove all parchment like seed coats. The chopped and cleaned mature kathal looks like this.

If using fresh kathal, and if it is chopped nicely it takes just about 15 minutes to cook on medium heat. You can always add your own choice of seasoning and spices, I like this kathal ki bhujia with a strong kick of black pepper and an earthy tartness of anardana (dried pomegranate seeds).

ingredients...
(2-3 servings)

chopped kathal like above 2 cups
sliced shallots of baby onions 1/4 cup
mustard oil 1.5 tbsp
cumin seeds
whole dry red chillies 2
ginger julienne 1 tbsp
black pepper corns 1 tbs
anardana 2 tbsp
salt to taste

preparation...

Heat a thick base pan and dry roast the peppercorns and anaradana briefly. Cool and make a coarse powder in mortar and pestle.

Heat mustard oil in a kadhai and tip in cumin seeds and red chillies, add the sliced onions once the cumin and chilly get aromatic and cook till they start getting lightly browned.

Add chopped kathal along with the seeds. Add salt to taste and stir fry for a couple of minutes.

Cover and cook for five minutes and mix once again. Cover and cook again for 5 minutes or till done, stirring in between for uniform browning.

Add the pepper anardana powder and stir fry for a couple of minutes. Serve hot.

This Kathal ki bhujia is great with paratha or roti meals. Nice with dal chawal meals too and even in Indian style grilled sandwiches with green chutney.

We like this kathal ki bhujia with our multi grain rotis.

Choose white fleshed tender but large sized kathal if you are planning to make this kathal ki bhujia. Else you may be left with a too dry bhujia or a melting sweetish kind bhujia that doesn't do justice to this recipe.

The kathal feels nice and soft in the bhujia, lightly caramelized with hints of ginger, pepper and pomegranate seeds. You might end up eating it as a salad too.

Try this kathal ki bhujia and let me know.