As you walk down the river from a distance, you smell the scent of fresh fruits. Who would not be excited over the sight of bunches of ripen fruits dancing to the wind? It has become a rare luxury that many yearn for. How well do we appreciate the nature surrounding us? People who have natural greenery around and can still enjoy fresh air in the moonlight are gifted. Before it’s too late, let’s wake up to the surrounding beauty. We could be busy people all packed up with tight schedules and deadlines. But all it could take is just a thought shift to change our lives. You can make it a priority to spare time to draw closer to nature. It adds meaning and value to your life, and you’ll learn how much we have taken for granted.
To make things more practical, you need to engage in activities that will bring you closer to your roots. Admiration is the key to rekindle your fading senses. When you become more conscious of your surroundings, you’ll make wonders out of it. Anything that you see in your environment will give you a source of peace. You’ll know how it can benefit you without bringing harm to nature. So you can turn your home into heaven with a little effort. Observe your surroundings. You’ll find varieties of things to taste and can beautify it with trees, plants. Anything that you think could go to waste, may not really. A piece of wood or a log can be transformed into delicate ornaments. Let your creativity play the part.
Let’s get down to the luxury of food that we might have overlooked all along. Do we still think the instant food we get in handy packs deserved to be called luxury? I hope not. It’s time to create our version of luxury. Take a walk in your neighborhood and see what treat nature has to offer you. You’ll be amazed by how rich your people are. There could be fruits and vegetables with which you can come up with creative and tasty dishes.
There was a time in history when people proudly held to their culture and cuisines, it’s not to say that such people don’t exist anymore. But let’s make it more of the norm. Local cuisines are wonderful for anyone who needs to draw closer to where they come from. Let’s discover how homegrown can be turned into mouth-watering dishes.
Get to know Jackfruit treats
Jackfruit is almost a staple in many Asian countries. It’s an everyday meal. Every part of it is taken for various fabulous recipes. Anyone who owns a jack tree is rich at home and heart. It’s a custom to share cooked jak or ripen ones with friends and family. Generations that have gone through feminine may relate to how jak saved lives. It’s a good option for a filling meal. Not just that, you can throw a party in the woods with several sweet and hot jak dishes.
Jack kottu
This is a street food found in Sri Lanka. To add a more local tinge to it, we try it out with jackfruit too. It would be best to go for it during an outing into a village with a group of friends or family. So get started by cutting and cleaning the jackfruit. Separate the flesh from the seeds. Wash the fleshy portion thoroughly and chop them into thin stripes and double boil it.
Vegetables and meat take a fair share of the kottu too. Cabbage, carrot, and leeks are the usual kottu veggies. Wash and cut them into strips as you did the jak flesh and keep them aside. Then we cook the chicken. Cut the boneless chicken into pieces and wash them well. Into a cooking pan, put the chicken, add green chilies, onions, and spices such as chili powder, pepper, coriander, and cumin powder. Depending on the flavor you prefer, you can add and subtract spices any way you want. Let it cook. Then you need to make a powder to mix with chicken. Heat a pan and add a little rice, chili powder, cardamom, and coriander powder. Get them roasted and ground. Mix it with the chicken curry, let it cook for a bit, and then spread it on a banana leaf and give it a quick chop with a knife.
Finally, heat a larger frying pan. Add oil, onions, curry leaves, and green chilies. Then add the chicken and the chopped veggies. Let it cook for a while. Then drop in two eggs and add salt and pepper to taste. Then goes the boiled jak. Give it all a good mix and your jak kottu is ready!
Jak laddu
This time it’s the seeds in-game. Roast the seeds by putting them into a fire. When they are well roasted take them off the fire. Brush the dust and peel off the outer shell. Then grind it into a fine powder. Then add scraped coconut, brown sugar, sesame, and kithul honey till you get a bit of sticky texture that’s ready to be made into the balls. Add salt to taste. Now you’re ready to make the jak laddus.
Polos rotti (young jak rotti)
It’s amazing, jak offers you so many dishes that you might never know existed. You can also make a tasty morning meal with the young jackfruit. All you need is chopped and boiled young jak, green chilies, red onion, scraped coconut, and wheat flour. Put all these ingredients together in a bowl, add water little by little to make roti balls. Then roll them into round shaped rottis to get them roasted on the stove using a pan. You can enjoy this with hot coconut chutney.
These are a few rare delicious recipes that you can try out of jackfruit. IT shows you can always come up with delicious dishes from nothing but what you usually have in your surroundings. There are always such options from any fruit or vegetables you find in the garden. Create your cuisine and call it a name, get surprised by what you can come up with.
