It was a dish when you have no other choices, but when added with shrimp and pork, green jackfruit has become a delicious specialty preferable at many restaurants.
Jackfruit is planted in almost any gardens in Vietnam’s central region, where life has never been easy due to the severe weather and arid land.
The ripe jackfruit has been favorite tropical snacks thanks to its fragrance and sweetness.
But as there are so many of them, it became dull eating the ripe snacks from time to time. So people started to think about taking the fruit down when it’s still green and uses it as a vegetable.
The green one is also desirable in its own way. Green jackfruit served with shrimp and pork has appeared in some big restaurants and become quite popular.
The recipe is simple.
It needs a green jackfruit, which is peeled and has the core, the edible fiber, as well as all the resin removed.
Then we take the jackfruit sections and tear them into small pieces. The sections can be either boiled or used fresh. But there is a risk that boiled jackfruit might not taste crunchy and lose its natural sweet taste.
Shrimps for the dish should be firm and of finger size. Boil them and remove the shell.
The dish taste better with the fat and lean pork, which would keep the jackfruit from being dry. Boil the meat and cut it into square slices of medium size.
When it comes to cooking, fry onion and chili and put the pork and shrimps on the pan.
Then add some sugar, salt, pepper before adding the main part, jackfruit. Stir the mixture steadily. Add some onion, coriander and some roasted peanut.
Pour the mixture into a plate, put some more roasted peanut and fresh chili on the top for decoration. This dish can be served with rice, rice vermicelli and diluted fish sauce, or an excellent treat at drinking table.
Many people also use the dish with wafer, a kind of hard rice paper made with sesame. Use a piece of wafer as a spoon to take the jackfruit, with shrimp and pork of course. Then put all into your mouth.
Enjoying the dish this way sometimes makes it taste even better as it not only adds the flavors but also the crack sounds of the wafer.
Compared with other rustic dishes also made from jackfruit, green jackfruit with shrimp and pork is considered the most delicate. Its wonderful flavor has made a normal kind of fruit become so special.
