Post by gracoman on Jan 8, 2020 11:56:49 GMT -5
The following is from Fruit Facts:
"Jackfruit is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world, reaching 80 pounds in weight and up to 36 inches long and 20 inches in diameter. The exterior of the compound fruit is green or yellow when ripe. The interior consists of large edible bulbs of yellow, banana-flavored flesh that encloses a smooth, oval, light-brown seed. The seed is 3/4 to 1-1/2 inches long and 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick and is white and crisp within. There may be 100 or up to 500 seeds in a single fruit, which are viable for no more than three or four days. When fully ripe, the unopened jackfruit emits a strong disagreeable odor, resembling that of decayed onions, while the pulp of the opened fruit smells of pineapple and banana.
There are two main varieties. In one, the fruits have small, fibrous, soft, mushy, but very sweet carpels with a texture somewhat akin to a raw oysters. The other variety is crisp and almost crunchy though not quite as sweet. This form is the more important commercially and is more palatable to western tastes."
Ripe jackfruit is sweet and used for dessert preparations. It is frequently canned in syrup. Young, green jackfruit is starchier and used for savory preparations. It is canned in water or brine.
That said, there are 4 ways to buy jackfruit, 3 of which are available to me. Those ways are fresh, canned and dried. I'm not interested in fooling around with a 30lb fruit that requires a boatload of prep using well oiled hands and knives due to the sticky nature of the interior, so I stick to canned in water. At least I did until discovering Amazon has 4.4lb dried bags of the stuff for $14.00. Canned jackfruit is light in color. Yellowish but not intensely so. It must be minimally prepped by draining, rinsing and cutting and removing the still attached core. The core is edible but will not string out like the rest of the flesh. By stringing out, I mean it looks similar to puled pork when cooked and mashed or pulled with 2 forks. Many folks use it as a pulled pork replacement and it is very good this way when prepped, spiced and cooked correctly in your favorite vegan bbq sauce (I like Stubbs and Bone Suckin' Sauce).
Dried jackfruit has oxidized a bit and looks reddish brown. More like meat. This is important. Especially to those in the transition stage of this diet. It is pretty cool stuff and has been around for a very long time. It is so much like pork, when properly prepared, I believe I could fool most people with a jackfruit "Pulled Pork" sandwich If I somehow neglected to mention what was actually in that sandwich.
I made jackfruit tacos for dinner last night and they were a great success served as any taco would be. I had both hard and soft tacos on hand. Soft corn tortilla tacos for me because hard shells are fat bombs and I didn't want that. Crunchy tacos for anybody who wanted those. All the fixins were on hand. Shredded lettuce, chopped onions and tomatoes, sliced avocados, salsas, limes and shredded cheese for the cheese eaters. They were served with Mexican white rice and Caribbean style black beans.
My old standard canned jackfruit has been replaced
My first bag of dried jackfruit will most certainly not be my last.
This jackfruit is considered dried but still very moist. This is about 1/3 of the bag on a full sized dinner plate.
A closer look
I rehydrated the dried jackfruit by soaking it in a mix of veggie broth and apple cider vinegar for a few hours. Next I "fried" it in a large non stick pan with onion, garlic, broth and a boatload of taco seasonings until the liquid was absorbed. Then I mashed it with my potato masher and let it sit overnight to absorb the flavors. Next day I spread the jackfruit out on a sheet pan and baked it to further dry it and crisp it up a bit. It is now ready to make tacos with.
I didn't get any pics of the finished tacos but we all know what tacos look like and these looked the same. The only difference is these tacos are actually good for you.
I will add to this thread as more jackfruit preparations happen.
"Jackfruit is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world, reaching 80 pounds in weight and up to 36 inches long and 20 inches in diameter. The exterior of the compound fruit is green or yellow when ripe. The interior consists of large edible bulbs of yellow, banana-flavored flesh that encloses a smooth, oval, light-brown seed. The seed is 3/4 to 1-1/2 inches long and 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick and is white and crisp within. There may be 100 or up to 500 seeds in a single fruit, which are viable for no more than three or four days. When fully ripe, the unopened jackfruit emits a strong disagreeable odor, resembling that of decayed onions, while the pulp of the opened fruit smells of pineapple and banana.
There are two main varieties. In one, the fruits have small, fibrous, soft, mushy, but very sweet carpels with a texture somewhat akin to a raw oysters. The other variety is crisp and almost crunchy though not quite as sweet. This form is the more important commercially and is more palatable to western tastes."
Ripe jackfruit is sweet and used for dessert preparations. It is frequently canned in syrup. Young, green jackfruit is starchier and used for savory preparations. It is canned in water or brine.
That said, there are 4 ways to buy jackfruit, 3 of which are available to me. Those ways are fresh, canned and dried. I'm not interested in fooling around with a 30lb fruit that requires a boatload of prep using well oiled hands and knives due to the sticky nature of the interior, so I stick to canned in water. At least I did until discovering Amazon has 4.4lb dried bags of the stuff for $14.00. Canned jackfruit is light in color. Yellowish but not intensely so. It must be minimally prepped by draining, rinsing and cutting and removing the still attached core. The core is edible but will not string out like the rest of the flesh. By stringing out, I mean it looks similar to puled pork when cooked and mashed or pulled with 2 forks. Many folks use it as a pulled pork replacement and it is very good this way when prepped, spiced and cooked correctly in your favorite vegan bbq sauce (I like Stubbs and Bone Suckin' Sauce).
Dried jackfruit has oxidized a bit and looks reddish brown. More like meat. This is important. Especially to those in the transition stage of this diet. It is pretty cool stuff and has been around for a very long time. It is so much like pork, when properly prepared, I believe I could fool most people with a jackfruit "Pulled Pork" sandwich If I somehow neglected to mention what was actually in that sandwich.
I made jackfruit tacos for dinner last night and they were a great success served as any taco would be. I had both hard and soft tacos on hand. Soft corn tortilla tacos for me because hard shells are fat bombs and I didn't want that. Crunchy tacos for anybody who wanted those. All the fixins were on hand. Shredded lettuce, chopped onions and tomatoes, sliced avocados, salsas, limes and shredded cheese for the cheese eaters. They were served with Mexican white rice and Caribbean style black beans.
My old standard canned jackfruit has been replaced
My first bag of dried jackfruit will most certainly not be my last.
This jackfruit is considered dried but still very moist. This is about 1/3 of the bag on a full sized dinner plate.
A closer look
I rehydrated the dried jackfruit by soaking it in a mix of veggie broth and apple cider vinegar for a few hours. Next I "fried" it in a large non stick pan with onion, garlic, broth and a boatload of taco seasonings until the liquid was absorbed. Then I mashed it with my potato masher and let it sit overnight to absorb the flavors. Next day I spread the jackfruit out on a sheet pan and baked it to further dry it and crisp it up a bit. It is now ready to make tacos with.
I didn't get any pics of the finished tacos but we all know what tacos look like and these looked the same. The only difference is these tacos are actually good for you.
I will add to this thread as more jackfruit preparations happen.