PHANAS

 

Most of us are familiar with a weird looking ‘pot-bellied’ fruit/vegetable called ‘Jack Fruit/Kathal’. It grows on tree trunks swelling into large oversized fruits. The light green texture has rough bristles like a hedgehog, if you guys have touched it.

 

If plucked raw, it makes an excellent vegetarian dish. The texture is fibrous and chewy. Also called the poor man’s chicken/mutton.

 

Last week, one of our neighbours brought a casserole full of Biryani. The lady didn’t tell us what it was made of. It was delicious and finger licking! She made “Kathal Biryani”. We were tasting it for the first time. One never knew that biryani could be made out of it.

 

I as a child detested eating vegetables. Once we went to Agra to our relative’s place. They served us something which looked like dry mutton preparation for lunch. Large chunks of meat were visible and I liked the taste. Neither mom nor dad said a word and watched me devouring the dish. It was later revealed, when they showed me the left-overs of the JackFruit. It was too late by then.

 

This tree doesn’t grow in Rajasthan. But jackfruit is available at veg shops sometimes. My wife and I make sure that if the vegetable vendor is willing to chop the fruit into a manageable size, we purchase it, cook it. At least once in season.

 

Time went on and I got posted to a remote place in Maharashtra during my corporate tenure. There this tree grew wild. Every home had one and every hillside had a cluster. One couldn’t count the number of fruits which grew hugging its trunk and branches.

 

Nature has its own balance or else with the weight of each fruit, it would have broken its branches. The minimum weight of one ranges from 5 kgs, going up to 20 kgs plus.

 

We had one tree in our backyard. The irony was that you could eat it once or twice in a season. The balance was left for the birds to feed on. When the fruit used to ripen, it used to emanate a sweet aromatic odour. Initially, it used to smell quite nice but with time that aroma used to turn into an alcoholic smell as if you were standing in a brewery. Luckily, there was no monkey menace or else they would have massacred the fruit. Fruit bats just loved eating it.

 

By the way, the ripe fruit is sweet and tasty to eat. The seeds within become gooey and soft. We saw it being sold in the market once. Our maid brought the ripe fruit from her kitchen garden sometimes.

 

Fast forward to the present. We tried planting mangoes, jamuns, mulberry and even Bel Pathar/Stone Apple, but lost most of them. It was time to grow something unique in the little space we had. If the experiment is successful then we would have a jackfruit laden tree even distribute it in our colony.

 

One of our morning walker friends, who is also a gardening enthusiast, promised to get the jackfruit plants online. What he got was seeds, instead of a live plant. He handed over five seeds to me. Out of the five two have sprouted. Once they stabilize, they shall be replanted in the rainy season. We have a place earmarked for it. Wish us luck.

 

I have heard a lot of people making pickles out of jackfruits. I am looking forward to making a barbeque with this fruit. Hope it tastes as good as the chicken BBQ.

 

I used to like the name Phanas as it was known in Maharashtra. It is called Kathal in Hindi, Chakka in Malayalam, Panasa in Telugu, Kothal in Assamese, and Artocarpus Heterophyllus botanically.

 

Whatever be the name, the fruit when raw, can be made into a mouthwatering dish. When ripe, eaten like any other fruit. One has to be careful while handling it as the white sticky latex which oozes out of it when plucked is poisonous. Besides if left cut, the surface turns brown because of the rich iron content in the flesh of the fruit. People generally apply a coat of lemon juice to keep it white & fresh.

 

By the way it is also called the ‘tree of abundance’. If you have a jackfruit plant in the house, no one goes hungry. It is linked to generosity and community sharing. It is also called a tree of fertility and newly married couples are encouraged to plant one in some places.

 

The seeds have sprouted and I am dreaming of a fruit laden tree growing in the Ellis’ Garden. Reminds me of the movie Kathal, where the police had to find the missing fruit of the local MLA. Will our dream come true? I wonder!!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© ® NOEL ELLIS