Chakka Varatti / Jackfruit Jam

I was waiting for my 125th post to write about this sweet. Chakka varatti is a summer special sweet very popular in kerala and H's favourite. My mom too loves this sweet but I have never seen her making it though probably because we didn't have the luxury of getting many jackfruits. My mom used to buy this and make chakka payasam which we all used to love. Hmmm, this reminds me, I need to post the recipe of chakka payasam also soon....

This is the first time I am trying my hands on it. We always used to get it from my MIL and stock it in refrigerator. Actually I have never seen her making it. She always used to prepare ahead of our landing... And H loves to have this with anything and everything, chapathi, puttu, appam, bread. He really uses this like a jam and for that reason likes this to be a little watery than the exact chakka varatti. The usual chakka varatti looks like halwa. Please see Palakkad cooking also to check on another chakka varatti recipe.

So before starting I got the recipe and tips from my MIL, but believe me this is a laborious and time consuming task. First the fruits need to be pulled out and de seeded  Then it is cooked until the fruits are soft and mushy. This is then pureed and later cooked with jaggery, stirring every now and then. The whole process can easily take upto 5 hours. But the time depends on the quantity we are making. If we are preparing in lesser quantity, it will take lesser time. But I can assure you of a really YUMMY and delicious jam.

Ingredients:
Ripe Jackfruit bulbs - 100
Powdered Jaggery - 1.5 cups
Ghee - 5 tbsp
Cloves - 6
cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Method:

• Boil the Jackfruit bulbs. I pressure cooked it for one whistle. 
• After boiling, we will find plenty of water that has oozed out of the jackfruit. Heat the mixture at high flame so that most of the water content is evaporated. Now beat in a mixie to make a nice puree.
• I got 1.5 kgs of puree from around 100 bulbs for which I took 350 grams of powdered jaggery. The jaggery I used is of the dark brown colour, little different from the normal yellowish colour jaggery. This is a lot more sweeter than the normal jaggery and we felt 350 grams of jaggery was little high for 1.5 kgs of puree. So please adjust your jaggery according to your taste.
• Heat a heavy bottomed Kadai or Uruli, add the jaggery. Dissolve the jaggery in about 1 cup of water. 
• Strain and remove the impurities. Wash the kadai and pour back the jaggery syrup into the kadai.
• Let it boil on medium heat till one string consistency.
• Then add the pureed jackfruit and cook on medium heat, stirring once in a while to avoid burning. DO NOT cook on high flame.
• Once we have added the jackfruit puree, the mixture will start boiling and spluttering a lot. This is where I hurt my hands. It seems in olden days people used to tie some cloth around both their hands so as not to get hurt. I would suggest wearing gloves.
• Once all the moisture is absorbed and the mixture starts thickening add the ghee little at a time or whenever you feel the mixture sticking to the bottom. Also add the cloves and the cardamom powder. 
• Keep stirring and cooking till the mixture leaves the sides of the kadai. To reach this stage it took me almost 2 hours for the 1.5 kgs of jackfruit puree.
• Remove from flame and let it cool naturally. Transfer into clean containers and keep dry.
• This can be refrigerated upto one year. I have made it little watery (jam-like) consistency. It can actually thicken a bit more.

Yummy Chakka Varatti is ready!!!