Idinchakka Thoran

Thoran or to put it in a non-Keralite’s vocab… vegetable stir-fries with coconut can be named as another inseparable “side dish” from the Kerala cuisine… To give it a definition, any finely chopped vegetable mixed with coconut and stir fried until crispier, is branded as a “thoran”. In fact, Kerala’s common lunches simply confine to sambhar, any thoran or mezhukkupuratti, pickle, curd and pappadum…..and mine is no different at all.

The most notable feature about thorans is that it can be made with any veg of your choice, be it cabbage which of course is the most popular….or beans or carrot or snake gourd (padavalanga) or bittergourd(pavakka) and the list just goes on and on….. You can even make a thoran using all your left-over veggies in ur fridge too…I learnt it from my amma-in-law who makes it quite often…and I just help her out by finishing it off…:)

At this point, I would like to share with you a special thoran with Idinchakka otherwise known as Tender Jackfruit. I just love this thoran but coz of its seasonal nature, we do not get to have Idinchakka whenever we want to. So, this time, when I got hold of this one idinchakka, I just cudn’t control myself making this thoran…..and frankly, this is the only dish which I know to make with Idinchakka.

So, here’s how the recipe goes for Idinchakka thoran…..

You’d require
A small Tender Jackfruit (Idinchakka)
½ of one Coconut
1 tsp of Cumin seeds
4 - 5 Garlic pods (unpeeled)
1 - 2 Green chillies (optional)
1 tsp of Turmeric powder
Salt – As required
1 tbsp of Coconut oil
1 tsp of Mustard seeds
1 tbsp of Plain rice
2 – 3 broken Dry red chillies
A few Curry leaves

Method:-
1)Remove the skin off the jackfruit.
2)Cut the fleshy part into chunks.
3)Place it in a vessel along with turmeric powder, salt and a little water and allow it to cook. Pls do make sure that it doesn’t get overcooked or mashed as we need to cook it further. So, keep tht in mind while adding water.


4)When all the water content has evaporated, remove it from fire and allow it to cool.
5)Meanwhile, grind into a coarse form the grated coconut, garlic, green chillies and cumin.
6)When the jackfruit has come down to room temp, place it in a mixer grinder in turns and run it once to get it minced. You can also use a heavy object to crush the cooked fruit….though I prefer using a mixer.
7)Keep the minced jackfruit in a plate.
8)Add the coconut mixture and mix the whole thing with your hands.
9)Heat oil in a pan and fry the plain rice.
10)Splutter mustard seeds followed by dry red chillies and curry leaves.
11)Add the jackfruit-coconut mixture and mix well.

12)Add salt if required and mix well again.
13)Lower the flame and let it remain there for around 10 - 15 minutes.
14)When it gets crispy-like, remove from the flame. Make sure you don’t make it too crispy if you want to retain its nutrients.
15)Serve with rice.

So, coming back to thoran aspect, it is supposed to be the most easiest to prepare of all the Kerala side dishes….the only time you’d need would be for chopping the veg finely…which of course can be made much easier using a food processor…:)

You can follow the same recipe with beetroot too in which case, grate the beetroot and add the same coconut mixture to it. Mix well and stir-fry until crispy. You can use this recipe for Padavalanga (Snake gourd) as well. However, if you want to make Cabbage or Beans or Carrot or Pavakka or Vendakka or Payar or Kovakka thorans, you can omit the inclusion of garlic and substitute it with a couple of finely chopped big onions. And the rest of the procedure is the same.

So, do make yourself a scrumptious lunch with sambhar and a naadan thoran as a side dish….

On that note, happy cooking!!!!