Chakka Varatti / Jackfruit Preserve

                                             We did a road trip to Detroit to meet one my husband’s cousin. I really enjoyed that trip….It was wonderful ride through the country side enjoying the scenic beauty. Detroit, adding to it was a beautiful place, we spotted lots of lakes there. On our way back to Toronto my husband’s cousin packed us a one whole jackfruit, knowing our craziness to that fruit.  That was an awesome Jackfruit, prefect ripeness and taste. We ate a lot and shared some with our friends too… But we still had a lot of the fruit remaining. I was quite burdened that the fruit might get spoiled. That’s when an idea popped into my head, Chakka Varrati or the Jackfruit preserve which my grandmother used to make. Usually my grandmother makes this varrati with an entire fruit or even two. It is made in a huge vessel called 'uruli'. It is quite a labor intensive process and takes a long time (about 3-4 hours).

Jackfruit is an aromatic, fleshy fruit with wide sharpy like dotted skin. It can be eaten ripe, and cooked or uncooked. The seeds can also be eaten cooked. Although many who eat jackfruit loves it for its delicious taste, quite a few are unaware of the health benefits of jackfruit. It contains vitamin A, vitamin C, riboflavin, calcium, potassium, iron, sodium, zinc and many other nutrients. Made a quick call to mom for the recipe.

         Chakka Varrati or the Jackfruit preserve is an authentic and most popular kerala delicacy made from ripened jackfruit. Chakka is a Malayalam word for jackfruit and Chakkavarrati is a preserved pulp made out of jackfruit, Jaggery and ghee. Generally the chakkavarrati is made during jackfruit season and preserved for making various chakka(Jackfruit) delicacies.

INGREDIENTS: 

Ripe jack fruit flesh (finely chopped) -6 cup

Jaggery - 1kg

Ghee 1 cup

Dry ginger/chukku -1tsp

Cardamom powder - 1tsp

Water - 2 cups

METHOD:

Deseed the flesh pieces of jack fruit and chop them into small pieces.

Pressure cook the jack fruit pieces with 1 cup of water, for about 10 to 15 minutes until it is soft.

Cool down the cooked jack fruit and puree it in a mixer.

Heat a heavy bottomed pan and transfer the jack fruit pulp to this pan. Stir continuously until water disappears.

In the mean while heat another pan and melt Jaggery with a cup of water, to a dry thick syrup.

Pour the melted Jaggery to jack fruit pulp and stir continuously.

Add ghee, chukku and cardamom little by little.

Stir continuously on a low flame. If it is sticking then add little more ghee.

Stir continuously without taking your hands, until oil separates from sides, and it forms into 1 single lump.

Cool and store in an air tight container.