Chakkakuru manga curry / Jackfruit seeds and mango in coconut gravy

Until I got married, I hadn't heard of this dish! In my own house, meat was the main dish and we used to hate vegetable of any sorts..God had his own plans... I got married...First few days went by, where we had beef fry, chicken etc along with some veggies. I was happy... After a week, the meat dishes began to disappear, and some weird looking dishes began to appear. I hadn't heard of many ... chakkakuru olathu (stir fried jackfruit seeds), thaalu curry (curry made of the stem of colocasia plant), chakka puzhukku, pathila thoran (a thoran made of 10 different types of edible leaves) and so on were their names. I was literally struck dumb by the variety of veg dishes my MIL cooked. In my own house, veg dishes meant cabbage thoran or beans thoran. I never thought so many of these plants and leaves could be eaten. It was an eye-opener and I loved most of them dishes in the first try itself.

The chakkakuru manga curry was one among them. Whenever we go to India, my MIL carefully packs a packet full of raw jackfruits seeds as it preserves well and this was made from the batch that she gave us in our last visit.

Ingredients

To boil
Jackfruit seeds - around 10 -12
Raw mango - 1 small (cut into small pieces)
Chilly powder - 1/2 tsp

To grind
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Grated coconut - 1 cup
Shallots / small onions - 3-4
Green chilly - 3
Cumin - 1 tsp

For tempering
Coconut oil - 1 tsp
Shallots / small onion - 2-3, thinly sliced
Mustard seeds
Dried chilly - 2
Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Method

Wash & clean the jackfruit seeds. Remove the outer white cover and slice legnthwise into 4 pieces. 

(Another tip from my MIL - its difficult to slice the seeds as they are really hard. So just pressure cook the whole seed for 1 whistle with little water & salt. After that you can smash the seeds easily).

Boil the mango pieces with the smashed or sliced seeds along with required amount of salt and little turmeric powder in a chatti or kadai.

Grind coconut, cumin, chilly & shallots into a smooth paste.

Add the ground paste to the mango - seed mixture and let it cook well. Just before the mixture boils, remove from heat. 

In a small pan, heat some coconut oil, crackle the mustard seeds. Add the thinly sliced small onions, dried chilly and curry leaves. Stir till the small onions turn brown and crisp and a nice aroma comes. Switch off the flame and add this to the curry and close it with a lid immediately.

Let it rest for sometime. And serve with hot rice.