Jackfruit

Browse All Jackfruit Recipes

Name Variations

 * jakfruit
 * jak
 * nankga

About Jackfruit
Wikipedia Article About Jackfruit on Wikipedia

The Jackfruit (Telugu: Panasa;Bengali: Kathal; Bhojpuri: katahar; Chinese : 波罗蜜 (bōluómì); Kannada: Halasina kaayi;Hindi: Katahal; Malayalam: Chakka; Malay and Indonesian: nangka; Portuguese: Jaca; Sinhala: Kos; Tagalog: langka; Tamil: Palaa; Thai: kanoon; Vietnamese: mít; Swahili: finesi; taxonomic name Artocarpus heterophyllus) is a species of tree and its fruit, widely grown in Southeast-Asia and Brazil. The jackfruit is in the mulberry family Moraceae, and thought to be native to India and Bangladesh. It is the national fruit of Bangladesh.

The Jackfruit bears fruit three years after planting and the fruit is the largest edible fruit in commerce. It is a sweet fruit that can be bought in the U.S. and Europe in shops that sell exotic products. The fruit is usually sold canned with a sugar syrup or can be obtained fresh from Asian markets. Sweet chips are also produced from it. The jackfruit or nangka fruit is used in Southeast Asian cuisine like Vietnamese and Indonesian dishes. People often say that fresh jackfruit tastes like Juicy Fruit chewing gum.

Unripe jackfruits are sometimes eaten whole, cooked as a vegetable.

The wood of the Jackfruit tree is sometimes used for the production of musical instruments that are part of the gamelan.

Jackfruit seeds
Wikipedia Article About Jackfruit seed on Wikipedia

The seeds can be eaten cooked or baked like beans. They taste similar to chestnuts.

Jackfruit Recipes
Jackfruits can be used in a wide variety of recipes. However, before we delve into the recipes it is important to note that both the unripe and ripe jackfruit have their unique places in recipe books. Unripe jackfruit is green in color and the flesh needs to be cooked before use.

Unripe jackfruit is well suited towards casseroles, stews and rice dishes. One prime example of an unripe jackfruit dish would be Gudeg curry. Gudeg is the Indonesian term for unripe jackfruit. Click here to see an example of Gudeg Curry.

Ripe jackfruit tends to be yellow in color with a consistency between that of coconut meat and mangoes. It is very well suited towards, custards, cakes and other desserts.