Ingredients
The jackfruit
- 1 kgyoung green jackfruit
- or 2 tins, drained and rinsed
- cut in chunks
- oil, for handling
The base
- 2onions, sliced
- 4garlic cloves, crushed
- 3cm ginger, grated
- 2green chillies, split
- a sprig of curry leaves
- a piece of pandan leaf
- 1 stickcinnamon
- 3 tablespoonscoconut oil
The spices
- 2 tablespoonsroasted curry powder
- thuna paha
- 1 teaspoonground turmeric
- 1 teaspoonchilli powder
- 1 teaspoonfenugreek seed
- 1 teaspoonmustard seed
- salt
The liquid
- 400 mlthin coconut milk
- 200 mlthick coconut milk
- a piece of goraka
- or tamarind
Directions
- Oil your hands generously before starting. Oil the whole knife blade as well. Oil dissolves the latex readily. Keep oil beside you as you work. Drain and rinse it thoroughly. Rinse it in several changes of water. Then squeeze it all gently dry.
- Oil both of your hands generously. Oil the whole knife blade as well. Cut the jackfruit into large sections. Use a heavy and very sharp knife. Cut it on a board you can wash. Cut all of the spiky skin away. Cut deep enough to remove it fully. Discard all of the skin entirely. It is firm and holds together well. Cut the core up with all the rest. Do not discard the core at all.
- Cut the pale flesh into chunks. Cut them about three centimetres. Keep all the pieces roughly even. Put the pieces in water as you cut. That stops them browning in the air.
- Add a little turmeric to the water. Boil the jackfruit in salted water. Give it about twenty full minutes. Drain it and discard that water. Heat the coconut oil in a pot. Add the mustard and fenugreek seeds. Use a lid on the pan for a moment.
- Add the sliced onion to the pot. Add the curry leaves and pandan. Add the cinnamon and green chillies. Cook them for about eight minutes. Add the garlic and grated ginger. Cook them for two full minutes. Add the curry powder, turmeric and chilli. Ground spice burns fast in hot oil.
- Stir it constantly for a minute. Add the drained jackfruit to the pot. Turn it through all of the spices. Coat every piece in the spice mixture. Turn it gently rather than stirring hard. Add all the thin coconut milk. Add the goraka or the tamarind. Season the whole pot well with salt. Bring it up to a gentle simmer. Cover it and then let it cook. Give it about thirty full minutes.
- Cook it on until it does shred. Adding the thick milk is the last step. Stir in the thick coconut milk. Warm it all through gently only. Do not let it boil hard at all. Keep the heat low from here on. Stir it gently as it warms through. Judging it takes a careful look. Remove the goraka if you used it. Someone would otherwise bite one. Take all of them right out of it.
- Taste it and adjust the salt as needed. It should be deeply savoury and sour. Add more salt to lift the whole thing. Add a squeeze of lime if it is flat. Serving it is always done hot. Spoon it out into a serving dish. Serve plain white rice alongside it. It keeps three days refrigerated.
Technique
- Young jackfruit contains a sticky white latex that gets on hands and knives immediately, is extremely difficult to remove and sticks to clothes permanently. It is not water soluble, so soap and water barely touch it — oil your hands and the knife blade generously before starting, keep oil beside you to reapply, and it wipes off with oil. Tinned young jackfruit has no latex problem at all and is the practical route for most; drain and rinse it in several changes of water, since the brine tastes strongly of tin.
- Thin and thick coconut milk go in at different points and that order matters: thin milk tolerates the long cooking that softens the jackfruit, while thick milk splits into grainy oil with hard boiling and so goes in at the very end to warm through only. Split coconut milk cannot be brought back together.
- Ground spices burn fast in hot oil, so lower the heat right down before the curry powder, turmeric and chilli go in and stir constantly for a minute — burnt spice ruins the whole curry.
Substitutions
- Tamarind stands in for goraka, a dried Garcinia fruit that is very sour indeed and used across Sri Lankan curries.
- Sri Lankan curry powder comes roasted and unroasted: this uses the roasted kind, which is dark and deeply aromatic and gives the curry its colour, where unroasted is pale and used for vegetable curries.
Variations
- The jackfruit tree is called bath gasa, rice tree, because it fed people when rice was short — one fruit weighs many kilos and a tree bears a great many over a long season, and that reliability is what earned the name.
- Cooked polos is fibrous and meaty and pulls apart in strands, which is much of the appeal; cook it until a fork shreds it rather than stopping while pieces are firm.
- Fish out the cinnamon stick, pandan leaf and goraka before serving, since they have given their flavour and someone would bite into one.
History
Young jackfruit cooked in roasted spices; the jackfruit tree is called bath gasa, rice tree, for feeding villages in lean seasons.
Frequently asked questions
What is Polos Curry?
Polos Curry is a main from Sri Lanka: young green jackfruit simmered dark with roasted spices. Young jackfruit cooked in roasted spices; the jackfruit tree is called bath gasa, rice tree, for feeding villages in lean seasons.
How long does Polos Curry take to make?
Polos Curry takes 40 minutes of preparation and 1 hour of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated medium to make.
What can I substitute in Polos Curry?
Yes, within limits. Tamarind stands in for goraka, a dried Garcinia fruit that is very sour indeed and used across Sri Lankan curries. Sri Lankan curry powder comes roasted and unroasted: this uses the roasted kind, which is dark and deeply aromatic and gives the curry its colour, where unroasted is pale and used for vegetable curries.
What is the most important thing to get right in Polos Curry?
Oil your hands generously before starting. Oil the whole knife blade as well. Oil dissolves the latex readily. Keep oil beside you as you work. Drain and rinse it thoroughly. Rinse it in several changes of water. Then squeeze it all gently dry.
