FruitsAndVeggiesMonday ~ Jackfruit Curry 🍚

I think it was two weeks ago when I had a conversation about jackfruit with another steemit foody. Her name is @myrandomness and I think she is asian. She posted a sweet tarte recipe with jackfruit. I only know jackfruit as a relatively new meat sub, told her about it and promised to post a recipe soon. And here it is ... I made a jackfruit curry with lots of vegetables ...

This will be my this weeks contribution to the #fruitsandveggiesmonday food contest initiated and hosted by our fabulous Lena from @lenasveganliving. The rules for the contest can be found here: STEEMIT FRUITS AND VEGGIES MONDAY COMPETITION ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY 🍒 🍌🍑🌿🍍🍓🍇.

Jackfruit is well known in Asia and it actually is a very sweet fruit used for desserts and cakes and so on. The taste must be something between pinapple and bananae. I have never had the chance to try a fresh ripe jackfruit. Maybe I am going to try some canned from the asian supermarket another day. I don't know how much I can trust this information but they told us that because one tree can deliver around 25 fruits fifteen to twenty kilos in weight each. That's why it's alleged that it is sometimes impossible to process all the fruits quickly enough and some finally spoil. Now farmers start to harvest some of the fruits in an unripe state, when they are firmer and not sweet yet. They remove the skin, wash them, cut it in pieces and pack it under sterile conditions. The young jackfruit has a plain taste so it's possible to infuse it with any taste you want. That's how my jackfruit comes to my german supermarket. I hope this story is true because I always have ambivalent feelings when using new fashy trend products from far far away. The product has to come a long way and causes environmental problems in its originate region (see avocado, palm oil, coconut oil ... ... ) This jackfruit supposedly comes fom organic farms and the farmers use the jackfruit trees to protect their rice fields from windy conditions. 

Another good thing about jackfruit is it is soy and glutenfree (compared to other meat subs) and contains a lot of fibers and minerals.

But now the delicious part, the actual food ... 😋

Ingredients:

• one package of jackfruit 
• vegetables of your choice (I hab eggplant, carrots, bell pepper, romanesco, pak choi and australian spinach)
• canned tomatoes
• one can of coconut milk
• red curry paste
• lemon grass paste
• peanut butter
• teriyaki sauce and tamari soy sauce to marinate the jackfruit
• fresh garlic and fresh ginger (chopped)
• vegetable oil for frying 
• basmati rice

Preparation:

I first marinated the jackfruit flesh with som teryaki sauce and tamari.

Then I prepared the veggies. I chopped the carrots, bell peppers, eggplant and the stems of the pak choi in bitesized pieces, the leaves in stripes and broke the romanesco into florets.

I fried the marinated jackfruit with some fresh chopped garlic in vegetable oil in my wok.

I removed the jackfruit and set it aside and fried the eggplant with freshly chopped garlic and ginger and a teaspoon of red curry paste (depends on how hot your curry paste is - mine is very hot). I added two cups of water to cook the eggplant well without adding more oil.

I added the carrots and the bellpepper and a teaspoon of lemon grass paste and stirfried for a moment. I don't want my vegetables too soft but you can cook them longer if you like.

I put into the wok the stems of the pak choi and the romanesco florets and cooked for a few mor minutes.

I stirred in the coconut milk, three tablespoons of peanut butter and added the green  leaves and the can of chopped tomatoes, let cook for a minute ...

... and finally the already fried jackfruit. Isn't the color disturbing interesting? 😜

I served the curry with a bowl of fresh cooked light and grainy basmati rice. Enjoy!

Have a successful week everyone! ☀️