Jack of all fruits: The quintessentially Indian kathal, a produce like no other

The giant's green, prickly carcass is lugged onto a newspaper-lined floor. Hands and knives are oiled in preparation as the crackerjack butcher puts muscle to the test, making gashes with surgical precision and doing away with the spine emitting that relentless, sticky white fluid.

Its odour, they say, is reminiscent of everything from rotting onions to a combination of melon, pineapple and bananas. Loved and reviled in equal measure, the beast – which can weigh up to 30-plus kilos – throws wedges, fronds and tedium your way before offering its rich, bulbous flesh.

If there ever was a contender for a literal fruit of labour, the jackfruit would be it.

The quintessentially Indian kathal or phanas is a produce like no other, traversing the spectrum from 'the poor man's fruit' to being mentioned in ancient texts like the Charaka Samhita, Susruta Samhita, Jataka Tales and Sangam literature. "A verse in Sangam literature," academic and food historian Pushpesh Pant once noted in a column, "compares a young man's fiancé to a tender stalk that holds large jackfruits."

"Archaeological evidence testifies jackfruit cultivation in India as early as 4000 BC. 'Jack' derives from chakka, the Malayalam word for this fruit/vegetable. This is where the Portuguese first encountered it and appropriated it as 'jaca' for fellow Europeans," Pant says.

Never mind that Emperor Babar likened jackfruit to "a sheep's stuffed stomach". This 'fruit/vegetable', as Pant puts it, is a versatile powerhouse whose merits are often cold-shouldered. Mango may be king, banana may be plebeian and coconut may be shriphal or God's fruit, but their greatness pales in comparison to this unassuming behemoth. From jack wood furniture and fodder (leaves) for bovines, to the fruit and seed's sweet and savoury preparations, the Artocarpus heterophyllus tree is a gift that keeps giving.

"Jackfruit is not only a pivotal part of south Indian cuisine, but also our gardens. No garden was complete without these five trees: jackfruit, tamarind, banana, coconut and murungai (moringa or drumstick)," says Chennai-based culinary writer Padmini Natarajan. Indeed, jackfruit – palakkai in Tamil – along with mango and banana, forms the holy trinity of fruits in the state.

While the ripe fruit is often consumed as is, raw jackfruit is used in palakkai kuzhambu (tender jackfruit curry), variants of traditional Iyengar dishes like paruppu usili (usually made with beans) and fiery Chettinad delicacy palakkai pirattal (loose translation: raw jackfruit masala). "The usili goes very well with mor kuzhambu (yoghurt-based gravy). But it's in Karnataka that jackfruit is used in a big way," Natarajan points out.

Mangalore medley

With their smorgasbord of textures, smells and flavour pairings, Konkan cuisines are petri dishes of everything to die for in Indian food. The pack leader here is Mangalore, feels Nitin Mascarenhas, whose spread of jackfruit delicacies can't be found elsewhere in Karnataka, leave alone the rest of the country.

"There's jackfruit saath (similar to Maharashtrian poli) and phansa khotte or jackfruit idlis (ripe jackfruit pulp mixed with rava, jaggery and grated coconut, steamed and served piping hot with ghee)," says the owner of Mangalore General Stories in Mahim. "Also, savoury fritters, papads and phansa patoli – boiled rice and urad dal ground with jackfruit pulp, coconut and jaggery, and steamed."

But his favourite is a dying classic: tender jackfruit pickle, known as gujje uppinakai in Kannada. Made with a roasted blend of Byadagi chillies, mustard seeds and other spices, the pickle is blissful with curd-rice. Gujje uppinakai has few takers today, he says – it's been 10 years since Mascarenhas has found a supplier.

"Even seeds, for example, aren't just used in gravies, but also by the poor as substitutes for cashews. Our shop would once sell a ton of jackfruit products in a single season. Now I don't sell even 50 kg."

The jackfruit evangelists

In November 2014, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Antony Cardoza, a former MD of the Kerala State Handicapped Persons Welfare Corporation, for felling (read: stealing) a jackfruit tree from office premises and taking it home.

The incident sums up the value of the tree in the largest jackfruit-producing state in the world's largest jackfruit-producing country. This is the home of chakka varuthathu (jackfruit chips) chakka varathi (jackfruit preserve), chakka pradhaman (jackfruit payasam), stir-fried plantain and jackfruit seeds, jackfruit thoran and avial, and of course, chakkakuru manga or jackfruit seed and raw mango curry.

"There's a saying in Kerala that if you have a jackfruit tree in your yard, your life extends by 10 years," says James Joseph. "Yet, over 80 per cent of jackfruits in India go to waste."

So concerned was Joseph with the collective disregard of jackfruit that he left his cushy job with Microsoft UK to return to Kochi and set up Jackfruit365, which aims to promote all things jackfruit and sells the packaged, freeze-dried fruit. Not only is jackruit undervalued, he says, but also severely under-researched.

"You'll never see even packaged jackfruit – minus the mess and the smell – in supermarkets. Because it's a 'poor man's product'," adds Joseph.

"It's disheartening to go abroad to get people to even consider researching jackfruit. The raw fruit doesn't just have a low glycemic index. It's rich in vitamin B6 and can be had as a complete meal because it's satiating, with high fibre content. It has great potential as a solution for diabetes," he outlines, citing studies from the likes of the Ceylon Medical Journal.

In 2013, Meghalaya alone accounted for Rs434 crore of losses as jackfruits lay rotting and unwanted. Shree Padre, veteran agricultural journalist and editor of Adike Patrike, calls such wastage of jackfruit "criminal". But, he says, jackfruit festivals in Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra provide hope – as does a booming demand for raw jackfruit in north India.

Indeed, thousands of tons of tender jackfruit are transported from Kerala to the north every year. The Hindi belt may not care for the ripe fruit, but this is ground zero of Awadhi specialties like kathal ki biryani, kathal do pyaaza and kathal kebabs, korma and koftas. The fibrous texture of the raw fruit is an incredible mimic of chicken, mutton and pulled pork.

Why, the Bengalis even call it gach patha – 'tree goat'.

Elsewhere in the east, tribal communities in Tripura and Nagaland make jackfruit wine, while Juang adivasis in Odisha use jackfruit seed meal as a staple food source.

It's unwieldy, smelly and generally displeasing to the eye, but the world's largest tree fruit gives a lot more than it receives. There are over 60 varieties of the wondrous fruit (including the red variant) and counting, says Padre, who concludes with an anecdote relaying how valued jackfruit is in Sri Lanka:

"At a jackfruit festival in Thiruvananthapuram, we conducted a survey asking people how they'd promote jackfruit. A Sri Lankan said 'We don't need to, because we have 50,000 acres devoted to it. Which means we'll never starve.'"

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Recipe: Jackfruit sukke

A recipe from Rasachandrika, the bible of Chitrapur Saraswat cuisine

Ingredients:

1/2kg raw jackfruit
1/2tbsp groundnut oil
1/2tsp mustard seeds
A few curry leaves
1/2 coconut gratings
4 red chillies
A small ball of tamarind
1tsp coriander seeds*
1/2tsp urad dal*
1/4tsp methi seeds*

*Fry in 1tbsp oil

Method:

1. Steam the jackfruit bulbs
2. Heat oil and prepare a seasoning with mustard seeds and curry leaves
3. Grind together coconut gratings, chillies, tamarind and the fried ingredients (i.e. coriander seeds, urad dal, methi seeds)
4. Add the masala, salt, jaggery and cooked jackfruit to the seasoning
5. Simmer on a low flame until it comes to a boil, then serve hot with fluffy rice.