Last year, I got an opportunity to read and review the book – The Indian Vegetarian Cookbook by Dr. Pushpesh Pant published by Phaidon Press. I tried the bharwan gatte recipe, and I posted it on the blog along with my thoughts about the book. I tried a few other recipes as well, and one among them is the jackfruit biryani. When I saw the biryani theme for this April month, I realized I have the right recipe for the alphabet “J.” The perfect title for this post would be tender jackfruit biryani, but during these A-Z recipe marathons, you need to play a bit with alphabets. Hence the name jackfruit biryani. It is popularly known as kathal biryani in kathal. I adapted Dr. Pant’s recipe but made this biryani a vegan one and also made this in the Instant Pot. I know tender jackfruit is getting popular in the vegan world. You can use it as a plant-based meat substitute in many recipes. The unripe or the raw fruit has a neutral taste and pick up flavor well. I learned that the cooked tender jackfruit has a meat-like texture.
Tender Jackfruit:
Jackfruit is very popular in tropical countries and it is used widely in South and Southeast Asian cuisine. Tender jackfruit is the unripe or raw or young jackfruit. Even though you cannot use the ripe and sweet ones for savory recipes, you can use the seeds to make dry curries. Check my jackfruit seeds thoran recipe, jackfruit seeds gravy, jackfruit seeds sambar to learn how to use the seeds. Ripe jackfruits are very sweet and you can relish them as-is and also make kheers. I made the vegan jackfruit kheer with the ripe fruits. Now coming back to tender jackfruit, you can find them during summer in abundance. There is a bit of cleaning involved. Raw jackfruits are quite sticky, and you need to remove the thorny outer layer and get the inner flesh. But these days you can find frozen ones and canned ones as well, and that’s what I did. :-) I do get tender jackfruit here in the Indian grocery stores, but for this recipe, I went with the frozen ones. Here is the picture of the same,
Now without any further ado, here is my jackfruit biryani recipe,
How to make kathal or raw jackfruit biryani in Instant Pot-
Ingredients:
3 tbsp neutral oil 1 bay leaf 2 green cardamom 1 black cardamom ½ tsp black pepper 2-inch cinnamon 3 cloves 1 onion, finely chopped ½ tbsp ginger garlic paste 1 cup tender jackfruit, thawed to room temperature 1 tsp red chili powder 2 tsp coriander powder ½ tsp cumin powder ½ tsp turmeric powder 1.5 tsp salt 1 ⅓ cup water 1 cup of rice
Steps:
Set the Instant Pot in saute mode and with the display shows “HOT” add the oil. After 30 seconds, add the bay leaf, green cardamom, black cardamom, black peppercorns, cinnamon, and cloves — Fry for 30 seconds.
Then add the chopped onion,ginger-garlic paste. Cook until the onion turns translucent.
Next add the tender jackfruit, coriander powder, red chili powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, and salt.
Mix well and cook for two to three minutes. Now add the water and mix thoroughly and make sure you scrape the bottom of the Instant Pot. Let it simmer for a minute.
Next, add the rice and mix gently.
Press the cancel button and then close the Instant Pot lid and make sure the vent is in the sealing position. Press the “Rice” preset button and when the cooking is complete, allow the pressure to release naturally.
Carefully open the lid after releasing the pressure and allow the biryani to cool for 5 minutes. Then fluff it up with a fork. Serve hot with raita.
Recipe Notes-
If you are using canned jackfruit, make sure you rinse the jackfruit thoroughly. Adjust salt according to the sodium level of the canned ones. Adjust the salt and spices according to your preference. If you don’t want to use the rice preset, cook the biryani in the manual high-pressure mode for 5 minutes and then release the pressure quickly after three minutes.
PS: If you try this Instant Pot Jackfruit Biryani recipe, don’t forget to comment and rate the recipe. Also, follow my YouTube Channel for new video recipes.
📖 Recipe
