Chakka Payasam / Jack fruit Payasam

Today I am sharing the recipe of Chakka Payasam / Jackfruit Payasam. My MIL helped me with this recipe and I prepared this for my hubby's birthday couple of days back. You will find lots of  jack fruit trees back in Kerala and there are some jack fruit trees at my hubby's house also, so mostly my MIL prepares "Chakka Puzhukku" by cooking unripe jack fruit. We can also consume ripe Jackfruit without cooking and it can also be used for preparing Chakka Varattiyathu (Jackfruit Jam ) or Chakka Payasam. The seed of the Jack fruit is used for making Aviyal and many other dishes. Mainly two varieties of Jack fruits are found in Kerala, one is Varikka Chakka and other one is Kuzha Chakka. The flesh of ripened Varikka Chakka is slightly hard but Kuzha Chakka is very soft which almost dissolves in our mouth. Mostly Varikka chakka is used for making Jack fruit jam and Payasam. For my hubby's birthday I wanted to prepare this payasam but couldn't find any ripe jack fruit in any of the grocery shops over here and then one of my friends told me that she used canned jack fruit for making this payasam so I bought it from the Indian grocery shop and prepared it.

Serves ~ 2-3 adults

Ingredients

Canned jack fruit ~ 2 tins ( 500 gram each ). There were around 25-30 jack fruit slices.

Powdered jaggery ( Sharkkara) ~ 1 1/2 cups - 2 cups (use it according to your sweet preference)

Thin coconut milk ~ 1 1 /2 cups

Thick coconut milk ~ 1 cup

Cashew nuts ~ 6-7 Nos

Raisins ( Unakka Mundhiri ) ~ 6-7 Nos

Chukku podi ( Dried ginger powder ) ~ 2 pinch

Cardamom powder ( Elakka Podi ) ~ 1/2 tsp

Thin coconut pieces ~ 3 tbsp

Ghee ~ 1 1/2 tbsp

Method

•  Heat ghee in a pan and fry cashew nuts, raisins and coconut slices till they become light brown in color and keep it aside.

• Then chop the jack fruit to small pieces and then cook it by adding around 1 1/2 cups of water for about 20-25 minutes or till they become soft.

• Meanwhile make jaggery syrup by adding 1/4-1/2 cup of water to powdered jaggery and keep it in low flame till the jaggery is fully melted and then strain it using a tea strainer. This will help in removing any impurities present in jaggery.

• When the jack fruit is cooked, slightly mash it using a wooden spoon and then add the jaggery syrup and keep it in a medium low till it thickens and do stir in between. When almost all water is evaporated, add thin coconut milk and allow it to boil and when it reaches your desired consistency, add thick coconut milk and mix it nicely and remove from the flame after 5 minutes. Finally add dried ginger powder, cardamom powder, fried cashew nuts, raisins , coconut pieces and a small pinch of salt.  

Cheers!!

Jisha