Jackfruit.
What is jackfruit? It is a fruit, for sure. In fact, when I asked Google (my close, at-my-fingertips friend), its says : jackfruit is the biggest tree-borne fruit in the world. It can weight up to 80 lbs, but the average weight is around 30 to 40 lbs.
Why ‘Jackfruit’? Why not ‘Johnfruit’, ‘Jamesfruit’ , ‘Mikefruit’ or some other name attached to fruit? Was the name Jack more popular than any other name back then? Was the fruit named after the person who identified then recorded its existence?
Even though in later years, someone suggested the name was to honor William Jack, a Scottish botanist who did lots of work in India and other Asian countries, according to my friend Google the name Jack actually originated from Portuguese word ‘jaca’ which is rooted to the word ‘chaka’ of Malayalam language. ( Malayalam is one language in India). And as with every other name, this one also have a modern twist to it.
The word ‘chaka’ according to the urban dictionary, refers to, some particularly bad-ass dude in Mexico’s Northern province. Bad-ass, meaning: young male toting multiple weapons, driving a luxury SUV and wearing expensive clothes. A bad-ass name for the largest tree-borne fruit in the world….I’m starting to see some attitude here….
“Hi, my name is Jack. Jack Fruit. The largest fruit in the world. Now, don't shake my Martini. Otherwise........” Then various weapon pops up by Jackfruit's side. Pictures of the unusual mixed of James Bond and The Mask's rendition of Dirty Harry.
Here in North America, long ago, jackfruit was only sold in a can. Heavily processed in sweetened syrup, it lost most of its natural flavor and texture. But nowadays jackfruit is sold in stores in many ways : Canned, frozen, candied, baked chips, or simply whole fresh jackfruit.
Even though jackfruit originated from Asia, the fresh jackfruit sold in North America’s stores are mostly imported from Brazil. A while back, I had the chance to shop in one of those markets. They sold either the whole jackfruit or a precut one. I purchased the precut one. I prefer the precut one for few reasons :
- With a precut jackfruit you can see the ratio of the edible parts of the fruit ( the healthy yellow color) , versus the part that are going straight to the waste basket ( the stringy one in very pale yellow color).
- The precut one is also sold without the inedible, heavy, spongy core of the fruit. Since jackfruit is sold by the pound, it make sense if we only pay for the usable part of the fruit.
- Jackfruit discharges a sticky white sap when it split open. The white sticky sap is mostly found when the meat of the fruit is separated from its core. The fresh sap is very sticky, but when you let it rest, the sap hardens a bit and becomes less sticky. Thus, the precut one have a more manageable sticky sap.
The edible part of jackfruit is the meaty, yellow flesh, roughly the size of a large egg, with seed in its center, embedded to the inside of the thick skin of the fruit. To extract it, you simply dug your fingers around it then pull it free. Using your thumb or forefinger, slit open the fruit then retract the seed. The seed itself enclosed in a thin, but strong, yellowish pouch. Once you free the seed from its protected pouch, it looks very similar to Brazil nut. To eat the seeds, you must cook them first, either by boiling them in hot water or buried them in half dying burnt charcoal until they soften. They taste good either way.
What do you do with the wasted part of the jackfruit? Some people will hung them to dry. Once they are dry or almost dry, they can be use as insects repellent by burning them. The smoke they emit chased away most flying insects.
Then what do you do with the edible part of the jackfruit?
Eat them, of course.
You can eat them raw as they are ( but, remember to wash them properly to get rid of any remnant of the white sap). Or you can cook them with some sticky rice and sugar for dessert. Or dip them in batter then deep fried. Or cut them and stir them in with avocado and other fresh fruit as a fruit cocktail. Or put them in the blender with some ice and make a jackfruit shake. Either way you served them, fresh, deep fried, stirred or shaken, they are delicious and refreshing.
