Brined Pachponos~Amla Gojju / Wild Jackfruit~Gooseberry Chutney.

“Mitta ghallele Pachponos-Amla Gojju (Brined Wild Jackfruit- Gooseberry Chutney) with Garlic" ... A delicious-aromatic-garlic flavored chutney prepared using cured in salt (brine) and stored ingredients from Konkani Saraswat Cuisine ... Yummy Yumz ... Tastes best wen served as side dish with Dalitoy and Rice or with Peja (Rice Porridge/Ganji/Kanji) ... Yummilicious ... 

** Brined dishes ie Cured in salt water dishes are a favorite in my home. There were many items that were either brined, sun dried, pickled etc. in bulk and stored for future use in the pantry during olden days. Those days during monsoon months it was difficult to travel outside to buy eatables or ingredients for cooking etc. Those days transport, roadways and other facilities were not as good as it is today. So the women of the house got busy during the summer months and prepared savories or other items that were dried in sunlight for a few days, like vodi, papad, aambe saat, ponsa saat etc. and stored in large airtight tins, covering the lids with a clean cloth and tying the the top lid with a thread. Then there were certain fruits that when in raw stage could be brined and stored. Every home had a pantry were in all these were stored including rice, dals, pulses, grains etc. for the monsoon months. I have seen all these during my childhood as my Mom prepared them all and we children would help out doing little things that were instructed to be done by her. We never cribbed but went about doing it with lot of interest asking plenty of questions and taken care not to spoi anything while preparing. I guess today's generation has lost out on all of these knowledge which can now only be told but not experienced. 

** But the process of brining / curing in salt water for raw mangoes, raw jackfruit, amla / gooseberry etc. are still continued in my home town and I too do so with that which is available in Mumbai. For decades now they are transported to almost all cities and we get to relish them if we are in contact with the sellers if the same cannot be done at home. Transport facility has really made the world small and reachable, unlike a few decades back when we used to bring them with us when we went visiting hometown. Now there is no need of carrying these excess baggage as they are available in almost all cities at least in Mumbai, they are. I buy them in bulk from the store and restore them in salt water and it stays good throughout the year. Gojju/chutney is a common dish prepared from raw mangoes or jackfruit and relished by almost all Konkani Saraswats. Paachponos or Paasponus is a small jackfruit variety that is also brined in raw form and used in preparation of gojju just like raw mangoes are done. Even Amla/goosebeery/nellikai/Avalo are brined and these can be prepared in combination of each other and it tastes awesome. I am enclosing the picture of paachponus in ripe form as that is the one only available with me as of now which I downloaded from google. I will try my best to get the picture of raw paachponus and the brined ones and edit the same here whenever I find a appropriate source. 

** Names : I have no knowledge of the exact name of Pachponus in English, but I guess it is called “Wild Jackfruit and belongs to the Moraceae family. It is also called Hebbalasu in Kannada, Vadahar in Hindi, Lakucha, Dahu, Adahu, Iravatam, Panasah in Sanskrit, Ranpanas, Pachpanas or Pachponos or Paachponus in Konkani. Anhili, Ayani-maram, Ayani, Anjili, Ayini plavu in Malayalam, Kattupula, Aiyini pala, Kurangu pala, pei pala in Tamil, Pejakai in Tulu and Adavi panasa in Telugu”, this information I got from google and that is the best I could do.

** Special thanks to Vinaya Bhat my Niece for sharing these brined pachponos / wild jackfruits with me. 

** Disclaimer : This is a google picture and does not belong to me ... My special thanks to the person who loaded this. For readers ... This is how the Pachponos looks like on tree and when allowed to ripe, The ripe ones can be relished as it is .... 

** Here is the simple recipe for “Mitta ghallele Pachponos-Amla Gojju (Brined Wild Jackfruit- Gooseberry Chutney) with Garlic" … My Style … 

** Ingredients : 

Brined Paachponosu / Paasponus : one medium sized. 

Brined Amla / Avalo / Gooseberry / Nellikai : 5-6 large sized. 

Coconut : 1 heaped cup finely grated. 

Kashmiri Red Chillies : 8-10 

OR 

Kashmiri Red Chilly Powder : 2 tblsp 

Garlic / Losun / Lehsun : 10 large sized skinned. 

Coconut Oil / Nariyal Tel : 1 tblsp 

Salt to taste : Only if required. 

** Add the brined amlas and the paachponus in plenty of water for an hour or so, changing the water once or twice in between. You can also leave it overnight if need be. This procedure is carried out to remove the excess salt content in the brined ingredients. 

** Drain off all the water and then remove the edible parts from amla and paachponos. Discard the inner seeds. Cut them roughly into pieces, put them into a mixer grinder along with the chilly powder or chilly, coconut, garlic and grind to a very smooth paste. 

** Add enough water while grinding to get a smooth textured paste, but do not add in more as we need the gojju to remain thick. When done remove the ground gojju into a bowl, check consistency and add in water if necessary and mix in the coconut oil. 

** Note : Add in salt to the gojju only after checking on taste. Sometimes brined ingredients have loads of salt content in them and how much ever we soak and remove via the water it is not sufficient and they tend to be salty and addition of more salt without checking can be disastrous. 

** I personally never add in salt to the gojju as in my home even on normal days we add in less salt to our cooked dishes and for us the salt comes across sufficient. However, if you find after tasting that your family may need a little bit of addition of salt do so and mix well. Coconut Oil tastes the best but you can use any other oil too.  

** “Mitta ghallele Pachponos-Amla Gojju (Brined Wild Jackfruit- Gooseberry Chutney) with Garlic" is done and ready to be served. This gojju that looks like chutney is not served with dosa or idly etc. as personally I don’t feel it goes well with them. We Konkani Saraswats to whom this is a common dish always serve this as a side dish with Dalitoy~Rice or Peja (Rice porridge). 

** In olden days Pejje Jevan ie Rice porridge food was relished at dinner time during monsoon season and the women of the home prepared this gojju to be served along with it. It tickles the taste buds being spicy, tangy and gives some sort of satisfaction when relished with steaming hot porridge. Do try out, if you like rice porridge like me, you can add on some fryums or vodi or papad and it will turn out a fantastic combo meal. 

** Note : This gojju is not heated or cooked, so it does not remain good if kept at room temperature once it cross the time limit of say 3-4 hours. It has to be consumed within that period, in case you want to use the same after a few hours, put it in the fridge and remove 20 minutes prior to serving and thaw the same for serving. In fridge it stays good for about 2 days, if kept immediately on preparing. 

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