BreadFruit Curry

There is a funny story behind bread fruit tree. My mom would never let my dad plant a tree in our backyard. She would constantly say “Those who plant bread fruit trees can never stay in their houses”. There is some superstition that it is not auspicious to have a breadfruit tree. Well, our neighbors planted one and to make my mom’s superstition strong, they all sold their home and left in couple of years. Where did they all go? To U.S.A! Well, so you now know what to do for that coveted visa. :-)Names: Kadachakka(sheemachakka) varutharachathu/ കടച്ചക്ക വറുത്തരച്ചതു

This is such a versatile fruit (vegetable), you can cook a lot of dishes with this. Here we get this at a Caribbean store. It is very hard to find in U.S. But if you find one, make sure the skin is in parrot green colour with no blemishes.

If you don’t know how to cut this up, follow the pictures.Cut the skin until you don’t find any greenish tinge. Cut the skin like you would cut a pineapple.
Then cut open the fruit and cut off the stalk (? – I am not sure of the name, but I think you will get an idea from the picture).Then cut it into very small pieces.For 3 cups of diced breadfruit, dry roast 1 cup of coconut until brown.Dry roast 2 tsp of coriander seeds, 1 tsp of cumin seeds, 3 cardamom, 4 cloves, one cinnamon stick and grind with some hot water to a smooth paste.

Heat 2 tsp of coconut oil, splutter mustard seeds, sauté two pod crushed garlic, curry leaves, one diced onion, 4 green chilies split, and then one small tomato. Then to this add breadfruit slices and sauté for one minute with 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder and enough salt. This vegetable is like potato, so salt should be added appropriately. Add the coconut paste and add 4 cups of warm water to cook. Cook closed in medium heat. This takes a long time to cook, so make sure there is enough water. Serve with rice.