Sweet and sour jackfruit makes a vegetarian meal very friendly for meat lovers. Jackfruit provides meaty texture and looks to a vegetarian meal without much work invested in that goal. The flesh of the fruit and its seeds, the texture it takes on when cooked, all makes it seem like a stewed dish of meat, in a rich sauce.
Beginning with clarified butter in a wok, she cooks whole spices in it. Cinnamon, bay leaf, clove, fennel, cardamom, chiles, cumin, coriander, caraway and mixed peppercorn are the Khada Garam Masala that she begins with. Exactly what I would have used.
We cooked the spices till the cinnamon stick unfurled, the cloves got plump, the chiles got dark, and the cumin a dark golden brown and the kitchen was getting spicily aromatic. Next we added the dried spices. Fried them in the oil for a couple of minutes, until their aroma had blessed the kitchen with its smell. Deghi mirch (cayenne used for color more so than heat), south (ginger powder), amchoor (mango powder), cumin powder, and coriander powder.
Saute the spices for a couple of minutes, adding water immediately after you add the red chile powder. This keeps the red from getting brown. It bleeds nicely into the pan and makes the sauce a rich red color after the addition of the next round of ingredients.
Next add the tomato puree and cook it down till the sauce is a bit jammy. It should take 5-8 minutes depending on how much water is in the tomatoes. As in all cooking one does, mindfulness and patience are the best friends we need engage for good outcomes.
Once jammy, taste the sauce, and add crushed tomatoes or tomato paste as needed, to fortify the tomato flavor and necessary acid in the sauce.
Cook the sauce for a couple to three or four minutes longer, depending on what tomato product you used. Again cook until the sauce is jammy and the tartness and the flavor of the tomato are shining.
Add the deep fried, and drained pieces of the Kathal (jackfruit) into the pan. Take a breath. Enjoy that you have come this far, and are almost ready to finish the preparation of a dish that will satisfy even the most ardent meat fan, and sate their cravings without having to have meat on their plate.
Saute the jackfruit in the tomato sauce for 3-5 minutes and until the sauce is soaked in by the jackfruit and not much of it is left other than what is sticking onto the vegetable. Add some water into the pan and cook it down till the sauce is moister and most of the water has been soaked into the jackfruit. You want a thick sauce, but also want to cook the water down. You can keep the sauce thick as gravy, or make it broth after you cook it down some. That depends on ones taste and what one has grown up enjoying.
It might have taken Smita 5-8 minutes to get the sauce just perfectly wet and moist to her liking. You can see how patiently engrossed she is in the act of cooking the vegetable. This is they key.
I surprised Smita by adding 3/4ths of a cup of Tamarind Chutney once she had reached the sauciness she wanted. She protested and made some noise. But was also deferential whilst questioning me about why I would change a recipe that had withstood the test of time at both her parents and in-laws' homes.
She made me stop after I had added just a 1/4 cup, and tasted it. Made a face that told me she felt I had failed her. She questioned what could we do now. I reminded her that I was still adding the chutney and was not done with it. She protested further. I added another quarter cup and then another. She stopped me and tasted and was not convinced.
I reminded her that we needed to check the dish for salt and wake it up. Get the part of flavors started in the pan. It takes fat and salt to coax out flavors in a dish. And acid too. In end, all of cooking is a balancing act between salt and acid, and of course being cooked with the right and right amount of fat.
With the addition of salt, both Kamal and Smita tasted the dish. They did the happy taste dance and made all the necessary noises that delicious food elicits from those that love food, without any prompting.
I knew the dish was finished then. Smita's eyes had the biggest tinkle. We both commented on the rich burnished color of the sauce.
Premvir Tauji, my paternal uncle and Smita's uncle-in-law, could not believe as he looked at the dish that it was meat. He was drooling over it, thinking it was a mutton curry. Smita and I were thrilled that he was that excited just by the looks.
Jackfruit is that vegetable that brings texture into play in a meaty way as far as vegetables are concerned. One need not do much to get the meatiness and satiety that many crave when eating vegetables as avid meal eating folk.
Mrs. Wanchoo and Usha Bua had given us the base by providing Smita and I with two fool proof recipes that were similar enough and hybridized by Smita into one over the years. The tamarind chutney that Smita and I had made the day before, gave us the idea of making Khattee Meethee Kathal Kee Sabzee, a dish that was a nod to the two grand women in our lives, and also to the evolution that life wishes for us to go through.
Life is best lived in a "sponge mentality" and not as a person living in a disconnect and vacuum, with blinders to the world and its happenings. If we live with open eyes, if we live with a hungry mind, and if we live to be mindful and present in our present, life always gives us wonderful opportunities to find growth and evolution that comes naturally and without any struggle or fight. At the table, Smita's cooking brought out reactions from all around the table that led to wonderful and unexpected exchanges.
A table where the food served is prepared with care, shared with love, and presented with joy and pride, is a table that is incubus for most meaningful ideas to be formed. Is a table where relationships flourish and evolve. Is a table that even has the ability to make enemies break bread and perhaps find a way of respecting each other, even if not in agreement. Such is the power of good food, and food prepared with love.
Never think that vegetarian food is something that cannot compete with meat. In fact, the opposite might be truer to a degree. Great vegetarian fare, that is not just steamed, boiled, raw, or a salad, takes much thoughtfulness, some effort, and a care put into its preparation. Unlike meats that can be grilled or baked or fried and without much effort, seem delicious, vegetables want our indulgence, our competence and our partnership.
Mindful people, can make beautiful plant based foods, where meats are not taboo, but eaten as they ought to be, as little golden bites of delicious pleasure. Rewards for delicious and otherwise healthier eating habits, that keep us fulfilled in more ways than one, keep the planet greener, and keep our bodies in better shape and form.
Who would not want a seat at a table as gorgeous and enticingly sexy as the one Smita had the other day? Not I. I would wish for a seat at such tables daily, and with careless abandon. When one eats mostly plant based foods, one can eat with relative less guilt, bereft of shame, and to the delight of our physicians and for the betterment of our overall health and lifestyle.
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