My native place in India,God's own country ,Kerala is filled with coconut trees, plantain trees,mango trees,jackfruit trees ,Tapioca etc and is therefore quite famous for one of a kind delicacies made with those seasonal fruits available in abundance.
Whenever we visited our grandparents in my native place from North India during school vacation ,my grandparents would pamper us with all kinds of homemade delicious Kerala special delicacies.One such exquisite delicacy I remember the most is the "Chakka Varattiyathu " aka Jackfruit Jam/Preserve and to top it all,it was made none other than my maternal grandpa (Achachan we called him lovingly) ...yepp not even my grandmaa but it was my grandpaa who would take a biiig 'Uruli"(a traditional bronze vessel with a hard bottom ) ,fresh jackfruits from one of the tree in the courtyard and would with immense love and care prepare it at ease ,quite happily, pulling legs of my grandmaa,his kids ,grandkids alongside ...He was not into cooking or something but during the grand festival,'Onam" he wouldn't mind at all.The most unavoidable reason being... I know you might have guessed "Presence of grandkids" especially but NO it was in fact ,"My mother",his oldest kid among six and the most pampered one,the most beautiful one,the most obedient one,the loving one my grandpaa exclusively adored the most .
I recall whenever we visited them, my grandpa would buy everything his daughter/my mom loved to eat like exotic fish ,fruits,vegetables that were not locally available from far and wide. Though he used to have a darn strict personality and was one of the most respectable person of that town ,quite calm,composed,angry old man (oops hope my mom won't read this :P) and needless to say I was reaaally scared of him .He pampered us,grand kids a lot as well but nothing like his favorite daughter :).My mom had the same kind of deep attachment to grandpaa.She would from time to time narrate all the stories of her childhood days to us,how she had the best dress in the school that grandpaa bought for her exclusively from North India once and how he used to even plait her hair etc...yeah so they shared a deep loving dad-daughter relationship just like me and my dad,if not more( stammering) .
So,yeah Chakka varatti was one of the delicacy grandpaa made ,(and I would be wondering watching him,when is he gonna get up from the kitchen ) which when traditionally cooked may take like 5 or more hours of stirring to get the apt consistency ,however the end result is so lip smacking and totally worth it that I am drooling even when I am writing this :D . This is nothing like any other ordinary jam or preserve, it calls for immense patience and care . So, it is not something for an impatient me but then it's my favourite too. So,guess what I made this in microwave within 5 minutes :D . I didn't feel any difference from the traditional one and moreover I used frozen jackfruit ,less Jaggery & ghee otherwise it will be more awesome I bet.
I believe I nailed it ;D. Yay to me !!:D
Hard to believe ?? Check out my recipe and try it sometime .
Chakka varattiyathu
Ingredients
Jack fruit - 400 gm
Jaggery - 200-400 gms
Ghee - 3-5 Tablespoon
Dry ginger powder/Chukku - 1 teaspoon
Cumin powder - 1 teaspoon
Cardamom powder - 2 teaspoons
Cloves - 2 nos. (optional)
Method:
Method:
Eat,love,live well,
sending this to Sharanya's Let's cook for christmas
