Operation Jackfruit

We got this bounty today. Some of it is not yet ripe and is hopefully, ripening in the heat of this summer's night.


How did it come about? K, who works with us, harvested this on his farm and brought us one, and cut it up for us. Cut it up doesn't describe it adequately enough. Neither does the word procedure. It is an operation, out and out.

The way he did it: Several sheets of newspaper, a small bowl of oil, sharp knives, one big, another small ...



... lots of strength and more patience. The round, white core at the centre is tough and need to be prised apart.


The oil helps mitigate the gummy stickiness that will adhere to your hands when you are cutting through the fruit. Notice the knife on the left, covered with it, all grey-white.


He cut it in half first ...


Then quartered it


... and cut it into eighths if it is a large fruit. Ours was not large.


Then, steadily, and with much concentration (throughout the operation), he cut off the sections of the central core.


Now the individual segments are easy to separate - they were earlier attached to the core. You can see it in the section on the right, where the core has been removed. It's almost like carving them out. He separated what looked like strips of jackfruit to get at the segments - it seemed to me that you need quite a bit of experience, else, you could cut through a segment and waste a lot of the bounty. K seemed to know exactly where one segment began and another ended. I guess I would have known too, had I also participated instead of taking photographs.


K also had this interesting technique where he scored the core's length and width.


He said doing so helped him minimise the damage to the segment's tops, and prevented some of the flesh from thus being wasted.


It makes for a more precise method, he said.


The exposed segments ...


... after the strips have been separated ...


... completely - a clearer picture


I read on the Internet that the strips are used to make jackfruit chips. They were tastier than the segments, which weren't as ripe.


Bon appetit!

Disclaimer: This is only a pictorial report, not intended as instruction. This post is the result of my being carried away with the golden opportunity I got, pun fully intended. I do not recommend any method, this or any other, as I
1. have not tried it myself
2. don't intend to
3. don't trust myself to do it well
4. believe one needs a fair amount of practice before I go recommending it to others.

Hence, I am not/do not hold me responsible for any blood that you may shed or any injury, whether to body, pride or other aspects, that you may suffer if you attempt this.

Having said that, I will proffer one serving suggestion: Stick a toothpick in each segment, put them on a nice platter and pass them around as appetizers. I was really wowed when I saw that done somewhere.

This is going to Jaya's Back to Basics event.

Weekend Herb Blogging Jackfruit Fruit