This Fruit Is
a Jack of All Trades for Vegan Cooks
JUN 15, 2016
Jane Lear TakePart
Tropical jackfruit can be a
dessert, a flour, or a pork substitute depending on what part of
the plant is used and how it is prepared.
This week, though, what
brings it to mind is the current obsession with jackfruit
(Artocarpus heterophyllus), a tropical “superfruit” in the mulberry
family that’s, well,yuge on several levels. The mature trees,
which can grow up to 50 feet tall in South and Southeast Asia, may
bear up to 200-plus fruits in a single season. Each oblong fruit
(the largest known tree-borne fruit) emerges from the trunk or
large branches and can easily weigh in at 40 pounds or more. That
said, the specimens you’ll find at Asian markets or many grocery
stores typically range from 10 to 20 pounds or so—which is far more
manageable but still intimidating to the uninitiated.
Specialty
purveyor Melissa’s Produce addresses the learning curve right up front.
“Wear old clothes, latex gloves, and cover cutting board with
plastic wrap (jackfruit are sticky!)” reads the first in six
instructional steps on how to break down and enjoy the fresh fruit.
No kidding. David Thompson, author of the encyclopedicThai Food, described jackfruit’s
latex-like sap as infuriatingly sticky. “Traditionally the hands
are rubbed with oil to protect them, but I find that everything
still becomes dangerously gluey,” he wrote, although, he concluded,
“it is worth the effort.”
When ripe, jackfruit has
spiny yellow skin and a potent—some would say controversial—aroma
and flavor that will conjure banana, mango, and pineapple all
rolled into one...or Juicy Fruit gum. The interior is packed with
large, fleshy, edible bulbs embedded in a tough core. The ripe
fruit is used in sweets (from ice cream and puddings to Nashville
chef Maneet
Chauhan’s jackfruit upside-down cake) and drinks, and
the seeds inside the bulbs are edible as well. Frieda’s, another great specialty produce company,
has the lowdown on how to cook them, and you’ll discover they taste
a bit like chestnuts or lotus seeds.
Like papaya and mango,
jackfruit is also appreciated in its green (unripe) form as a
vegetable. That’s how I first had it—as an ingredient in curries—in
Kerala and how I prefer it. You’ll find it treated similarly in
Thailand and elsewhere in that part of the world. When used in a
savory dish, unripe jackfruit (often called “raw jackfruit” in
recipes) is what I would call an opportunistic ingredient. It
absorbs flavors readily, and its texture is reminiscent of shredded
chicken or pork. It’s a great vegan meat substitute, which goes a
long way in explaining why it’s so au courant. Google “BBQ
jackfruit,” and you’ll see what I mean. Then come right
back.
Among the shelf-stable
jackfruit products available in upscale supermarkets are four
varieties (Thai Curry, Bar-B-Que, Chili Lime Carnitas, and
Original) made by Upton’s Naturals, a Chicago-based vegan company
that was recently profiled in Food
Business News, and various renditions
from The Jackfruit Company, founded, along with Global
Village Fruits, by social entrepreneur Annie Ryu. The Harvard grad
had an epiphany on a trip to India, she told the Boston
Business Journal. Much of that country’s
jackfruit crop goes to waste, she added. “I thought if I could
connect this great crop with a market, it could create
opportunity.”
Jackfruit, once an
important staple crop in India, is viewed negatively today as a
“poor man’s food,” as it’s cheap and abundant. But the fruit is
high in nutritive value. Unusually for a fruit, it contains B
vitamins, and, according to an article published in the
journal Genetics
and Molecular Research, every 100 grams of
ripe “flakes” contains 287 to 323 milligrams of potassium, 30.0 to
73.2 milligrams of calcium, and 11 to 19 grams of
carbohydrates.
“The nutritious seeds are
boiled or roasted and eaten like chestnuts, added to flour for
baking, or cooked in dishes. The tree is also known for its durable
timber, which ages to an orange or reddish brown color, with
anti-termite properties,” wrote the researchers. “The leaves and
fruit waste provide valuable fodder for cattle, pigs and goats.
Jackfruit wood chips yield a dye, which is used to give the famous
orange-red color to the robes of Buddhist priests,” and many parts
of the plant have medicinal uses as well.
Let’s also not forget
increased food security. According to a 2014 report from
the International Panel on Climate Change, climate change
is already affecting the yields of staple crops such as wheat and
maize, particularly in developing countries. A number of
researchers, including Nyree Zerega, director of the graduate program in
plant biology and conservation at Northwestern University and the
Chicago Botanic Garden, are on the prowl for underutilized
alternatives such as jackfruit. A
symposium devoted to the genetic diversity, marketing,
and “value addition” of jackfruit and its close cousin breadfruit
was held at the University of Agricultural Sciences, in Bangalore,
in May 2014.
A wide variation in fruit
quality is among the problems facing plant scientists interested in
developing jackfruit’s potential. In fact, people’s
love-it-or-hate-it response to the fruit may be a quality issue,
said Richard Campbell, director of horticulture and senior curator
of tropical fruit at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, when
interviewed for Edible
South Florida.
“There is definitely
more awareness today,” explained Campbell, who is also the
coauthor, with Noris Ledesma, of The Exotic
Jackfruit: Growing the World’s Largest Fruit. “The
jackfruit has a strong cultural connection with the people of Asia.
Here in South Florida there is a growing awareness of the jackfruit
that comes through these ethnic groups. Mango is indeed highly
successful in South Florida and is our biggest farm-gate fruit, but
jackfruit is also strong and growing.”
Jackfruit trees are easy to
grow in South Florida and have been cultivated there for more than
a century. At Fairchild,
researchers have focused on the introduction and development of
superior cultivars (some with smaller fruit) for use in tropical
America, and I recently met a Florida gardener who planted a few of
them last year. “They’re going like gangbusters!” she said. Nothing
succeeds like excess.