I was very excited to see Jackfruit as this month’s Jhiva for ingrdients. I know what I wanted to make immediately but I didnt know where to get it from. I remember those summer days when my Mom used to warn us not to throw away the Jackfruit seeds so that she can make this curry. So my search for the panasa pikkalu (Jackfruit Seeds) began. I remember seeing green jackfruit and jackfruit in sugar syrup in the Indian grocery stores but never the jackfruit seeds. I asked around and some said I might get them in Srilankan stores and others asked me to try Chinese or Vietnamese stores. But I found them at lst in the frozen foods section of an Indian store that also carries Srilankan stuff.  So here comes the recipe.

Vegetables

2 cups of Jackfruit Seeds
1 small Bottlegourd

For the paste:
4 Tsp Mustard Seeds ( Avalu )
4 Red Chillies
1 Tsp Tamarind Paste
1/2 Tsp Turmeric
1 Tbsp Jaggery (Bellam)
2 Tbsp Nulapodi ( Sesame seeds powder. Can substitute this with roadted sesame seeds or peanuts)
1 Tbsp Cashewnuts
1Tbsp Coconut

Grind all the above ingredients to a very smooth paste adding very little water.

For the popu/Tadka

1 Tbsp Oil
2 Tsp Senagapappu / Chana dal
Pinch of Inguva /Hing
5-6 Curry Leaves

Method:

Cut the bottlegourd into small pieces. This should be about 1 cup of bottlegourd pieces. Boil the bottlegourd pieces with the jackfruit seeds, salt and little turmeric in a pressure pan. In the meantime make the ava / mustard seeds paste with the above ingredients. Heat oil in a pan and add the popu ingredients. Once the chana dal chenges its colour, add the boiled vegetables and the paste. Stir it in between. Continue cooking this till the raw smell of the paste goes away.
We use the same ava ( mustard seeds) paste to make all the ava pettina curries but this curry is my favourite. We make ava pettina curries with cabbage, anapakaya(bottlegourd), raw banana, kanda (elephant yam) and jackfruit seeds. Recipe is exactly the same for any vegetable.