Enchor Kofta (Bengali Jackfruit Kofta Curry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 
Week 1: Bengali Cuisine
Day 5: Enchor Kofta (Bengali Jackfruit Kofta Curry)
I should first say a big thanks to Sandeepa of Bongmom Cookbook for all her amazing Bengali recipes. It was a breeze picking my dishes for letters A~H because of her blog. I already made Aam Doi, Charchari and Doi Dharosh from her blog. Today's dish Enchor Kofta or jacfruit kofta curry recipe is also from her blog.

I've had a few mishaps making koftas in the past, so I'm usually wary about trying any new recipe. But Sandeepa's recipe looked doable, I took the plunge and made them following her recipe. The koftas were probably the best I've ever made.

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Vegetarian Gyros with Jackfruit

Blogging Marathon# 60: Week 2/ Day 2

Theme: Take-Away dishes from Metropulos, Santa Barbara

Dish: Vegetarian Gyros with Jackfruit
Gyro (pronounced as jiro) literally means 'turn' in Greek. But basically it is a dish made of meat cooked in a vertical rotisserie and then served wrapped in a pita with toppings. Gyro is out and out meat centered dish and this vegetarian version is far far away from it's origins.

All this talk about Gyro is because I'm cooking from a Greek take-out restaurant, Metropulos, in Santa Barbara for this week's BM and Gyro happens to be one of their specialties. But they make it meat and I made mine with jackfruit.

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Potato-Jackfruit seed Kurma

One of the few dishes that I didn't like growing up was 'kurma'. I don't know why, but the combination of yogurt and coconut was not too appealing for me. Being a good kid (ahem..) I would eat it without protesting, but I was never happy eating it. That is a big reason why I don't make kurmas that often in my kitchen.

But nowadays kurmas are being made without yogurt and when I saw this recipe with yogurt on a Telugu cooking show, I knew I would like this version. 

Recipe uses jackfruit seeds along with potato. I've never used jackfruit seeds before and when I saw the frozen ones in the Indian store, I was super excited to try them. They didn't taste much of anything raw, but absorb the flavors of the curry and were quite tasty in the curry. Infact my diners didn't even make out that there was a new ingredient in the dish. I served the kurma with this Udupi Vegetable Pulao and it was a delicious combination.

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JFI - Jackfruit Masala Curry

Bee and Jai at Jugalbandi are hosting this month’s JFI with a very special ingredient – Jackfruit (or Panasa kaya in telugu). I have never cooked with it before but I have tasted both ripe jackfruit and the yummy jackfruit curry (panasa pottu kura) that my Peddamma (Mom’s older sister) makes. But never have I thought of using the ingredient myself (don’t ask me why).

I have to thank Bee and Jai for choosing jackfruit as the ingredient, as it made me try it and both my husband and I liked the dish.

This recipe is from my cousin.

Ingredients:
Jackfruit – 1 can, drained and rinsed; chopped into bite size pieces
Onion – 1 large
Tomatoes – 2 medium, ripe (I substituted one tomato with 1 tsp tomato paste)
Ginger-garlic paste – ½ tsp
Curry leaves – 6
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Red chili powder – ½ tsp
Chole masala – 1 tsp (or Garam masala)
Aamchur powder – ¼ tsp (or little bit of tamarind pulp)
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Heat 2 tsp oil on medium heat; add cumin seeds and when they splutter add curry leaves and onions; sauté till transparent and lightly browned on the edges.
  
• Add turmeric, ginger-garlic paste and sauté for 30 seconds.
  
• Add tomatoes; cover and cook till the tomatoes are tender.
  
• Next add the jackfruit pieces, ½ cup of water. Cover and cook for about 8-10 minutes.
  
• Add the powders and salt; cook for another 3-5 minutes. Serve with steamed rice or rotis.