Bhatia Fanas Curry (Raw Jackfruit)

About this recipe

Kathal—raw jackfruit—is the vegetable that eats like meat, and Bhatia cooks have understood this for generations. Young, green jackfruit has a texture between potato and pulled chicken, taking on flavour from whatever surrounds it. This version is slow-cooked in a tomato gravy sharpened with tamarind and jaggery, creating a dish that is both deeply warming and oddly elegant. The technique is crucial: pressure-cook the cubed jackfruit first with just salt and water, which tenderises it without breaking it apart. Then move it into a tomato-based gravy where tamarind and jaggery balance each other—the sweet mollifying the sour, the sour cutting through the sweet, creating a subtle complexity that improves with every spoonful. This is not a mild dish, but it's refined rather than crude in its spice. Fresh jackfruit is sticky; the sap will stain your hands and cling to your knife. Oil your blade and your palms before you start cutting, otherwise you'll spend more time washing than cooking. Some people use gloves, but oiling is faster and cleaner. Store-bought frozen jackfruit skips this entirely, though the texture never quite matches fresh. Serve this alongside hot roti or with rice, where the sauce clings to every grain. The dish tastes better the next day, as the jackfruit has more time to absorb the tamarind-jaggery balance. It freezes beautifully for two weeks and reheats without any loss of flavour. This is the kind of vegetarian centrepiece that impresses without announcing itself.