Slow-cooked Jackfruit Curry with Tamarind and Coconut

[purplecat]

Crossposted to cookbook_challenge.

Another recipe from The Roasting Tin around the World by Rukmini Iyer.

Ingredients

2x600g tines of jackfruit
1 onion finely chopped
2 carrots cut diagonally into 1cm half-moons
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 fresh red chilli, pierced
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 tsp sea salt flakes
1 x 400ml tin coconut milk
4 heaped tsp tamarind paste
200-300g green beans topped and tailed and cut into bite-size pieces
1 tbsp coconut or sunflower oil
2 tbsp vegan or natural yoghurt


Method
Preheat the over to 150C fan/170C/gas 3.

Put jackfruit, onion, carrots, spices, chilli, garlic, salt, coconut milk and tamarind into a lidded casserole dish or roasting tin. Cover and cook for 1.5 hours.

Add the green beans and cook for a further 30 minutes.

Stir through the oil and let it cool for 5 minutes. Then stir through the yoghurt and serve


Changes, Mistakes and Substitutions
I used half the quantity of jackfruit since there were only 2 of us. I also forgot the final steps with the oil and yoghurt (oops!)

Verdict
It's a nice curry but tasted mostly of coconut and tamarind and I'd have liked something that showcased the jackfruit a bit more since that was a new to us ingredient. Obviously, if I'd remembered to put the yoghurt in at the end that might have diluted the coconut and tamarind ness of it all.

May well make again though.

Comments

[a_cubed]

Jackfruit is not particularly strongly flavoured. At least the very fresh jackfruit I've had in Malaysia (locally grown so the flavour may differ when it's shipped). I wouldn't think it would come through against coconut and tamarind very well. More of a texture than a strong flavour.

[purplecat]

Yes, the Jackfruit seemed to have quite a delicate/mild flavour. It felt like one of those vegetarian dishes where the point is to hide the flavour of the "meat-substitute" rather than treat it as something in its own right.

[romanajo123]

Mmmm… now this sounds interesting. I like spicy things & have been wanting to try curry forever.

I looked up “ jackfruit.” It kind of looks like big green things w/ yellow inside, like melon or berry 🤤

[purplecat]

I get the impression its quite a fashionable "meat substitute". Given the nature of this dish I reckon you could easily substitute tofu or quorn, or even something like chickpeas for a similar effect. In the UK you can get Jackfruit in tins without too much effort. I don't think I've ever seen a fresh one.

[bigtitch.livejournal.com]

From experience jackfruit doesn't have much flavour of its own.

[purplecat]

Yes, it seemed to have quite a mild flavour - maybe its too mild but it would have been nice to have a recipe that tried to do more with it than just hide it.