THE JACKFRUIT AND THE MUNJAL

SUMMER SWEETNESS

 

My memories of summertime would be visits to my grandparents home in Hyderabad and Secunderabad respectively. Hot summers but strangely I don’t remember the heat to be unbearable as both had beautiful homes with lots of greenery and many fruit trees in the yard.
We spent a lot of our time playing in the yard, climbing trees and though it was hot somehow we didn’t feel it.

To this day when I hear the call of the brain fever bird or “Papiha” as they are called in Hindi, I am immediately transported back in time to those summers. We often used to wake up to the call of the Papiha.

I recall being introduced to munjals, by my father. My father is known for his pranks and I must have been all of 4 years old when he handed me a munjal or ice apple as its called. He said if you bite into it it has ice cubes inside, and its called an ice apple because it has ice inside, and when I did there was a trickle of water that slid down my chin, I was thrilled as I never knew anything like it. There grew my love for munjals.

 

And my dad responds by saying “you took so long to eat it the ice melted”

Another favourite memory I have is eating jackfruit. Not too many people like jackfruit its an acquired taste. Luckily for me I acquired the taste pretty early. We loved to eat the ripe jackfruit and collect all the seeds boil them and snack on them. As a child I wasn’t allowed to fool around in the kitchen however under supervision my first culinary delight was “boiled jackfruit seeds” which are similar to water chestnuts in texture and taste, and very nutritious.

The munjal and jackfruit bring back lovely memories and when I see the carts loaded with jackfruit and the vendors busy oiling their hands and extracting the fruit, it makes me smile as we used to have some seriously frantic times trying to get the gooey stuff off our hands because invariably we would poke our noses when the cook or the gardener would be cleaning the jackfruit and attempt extracting the fruit and then spend hours trying to get the sap off our hands.

The munjal vendors usually roam around localities on their bikes with a basket with bunches of leaves covering the fruit and peeking out of the basket. I still remember my grandmother telling the vendors not to cheat and mix in the hard ice apples . Ice apples should be soft and gelatinous not hard, that’s when they are their tastiest

The fruit when tender and ripe is very jelly like, translucent, similar to tender coconut and tastes very unique. Its not too sweet but a cooling and refreshing fruit. Munjals are fruit of the Palmyra tree. Toddy is also extracted from this tree and widely used palm jaggery is also another common product originating from this tree.

A family summertime favourite of ours is a summer time snack or dessert of cut ripe sweet mango with cubed ice apples. Divine !

You can have it as is or add milk and honey or low fat fresh cream and honey for a special occasion

Jackfruit is also widely popular as chips, a variety of preserves, sweet and spicy chutneys are made from the fruit. The fibrous protective cover surrounding the fruit is used and cooked as a vegetable dish. When cooked the texture of the covering closely resembles meat. Its commonly called ‘Kathal’ a rich source of fibre.

Jackfruit (the individual pods) are a rich source of Vitamin C and antioxidants, great for the immune system and cancer fighting properties

They are a high carbohydrate food and abundant in natural sugar, so they provide you the energy and have no saturated fats or bad cholesterol

Jackfruit is high in potassium, which in turn is important to regulate your sodium levels and balance out electrolytes thereby helping with blood pressure regulation

Its a good source of soluble and insoluble fiber to maintain colon health and improve digestion

Also known to be good source of Vitamin A

Being rich in Vitamin C, it facilitates better absorption of Iron and is effective in prevention of anaemia

Munjals are a hydrating fruit, with a high water content and have a good mix of minerals, sodium and natural sugars and are well known to balance electrolytes

And finally my favourite part of the jackfruit - the seeds are a carbohydrate rich food, high in fibre and make for a healthy snack or can be used to add texture to stir fry vegetables. Thrown in to curries they absorb flavours easily, and act similar to a potato that is quick to absorb flavours in spicy dishes. 

 

If you haven't tried Jackfruit and Munjals before, you must - you may not like it but you may just love it.

"Go make some memories of your own"

Enjoy!