Jack - an Amazing substitute

 

Jack is one of the main resources in Sri Lanka and Panadura located in the coastal area, was once famous for Jack which was introduced by Mr. Arthur V. Dias, mostly known as ‘Kos Mama’(jack uncle), as a supplementary food for rice which is the staple food of every Sri Lankan. Normally, Jack fruit is eaten in quite a few ways which is traditionally inherited by our ancestors. Generally it is eaten as steamed Jack with scraped coconut, with all spices as a curry along with rice, “Polos Curry” made from baby jack fruit, dried jack curry made from “atu kos” which is made from drying the excess amount of jack and also eating ripen jack fruit. But with the advancement of technology, there are many other ways in which jack can be eaten, other than the normal traditional ways. Therefore, this article reveals the amazement of byproducts of jack.

The following resources about modern day usage of food made by jack are taken from Mr. Lalith Manjula who is currently living in Panadura and referred as ‘The present Kos Mama’. First when we consider the most important meal for almost every Sri Lankan, it is the meal that is taken with the whole family at Sinhala and Tamil New Year which is the most important traditional ceremony of our society. This table of food consist of many different choices of local food like, milk rice and many other sweet meats such as oil cake, kokis, asmi, mung athiraha, and many more sweets made out of wheat flour and rice flour. It is found that every type of food in this table could be made using the jack fruit in many different ways using the jack seed powder instead of using wheat flour. So it is a new supplementary for the New Year table with the growing modern society and the development of technology.

Even desserts can be made using jack fruit, such as jelly, juggery pudding, ice cream and many more including jack fruit juice and cordial.

 

Also many people nowadays take the coconut milk powder than just extracting milk from scraped coconut which is also time consuming. So as a result, this coconut powder that is used in curries, can be made by grinding the jack fruit seed, which will eventually reduce the number of cholesterol patients as coconut is rich in it while jack seed is free of it. Apart from making sweets for the New Year table, this powder can be used to make other food such as ‘Pol roti’ which generally made from wheat flour.

This is healthier to use and also it is surprising that we can use this powder to make cakes, biscuits, cereals and food for small children which would always be porridge. So through this almost the whole meal can be made out of jack fruit and even short eats which users mainly wheat flour, can use this jack seed powder to make the dough while jackfruit itself can be used to make a dish as the filling for the dough. For an example cutlets, patty and many more.

 When looking at it in detail, it is seen that jack fruit can be taken as an indigenous medicinal treatment too. When at smallest stage of jack fruit called “Kos Panamal” is used to boil and that boiled water is given to Dengue patients which increases immunity, which I have also experienced personally. Another important product is that the stalk of the jack fruit is cooked and given to Cancer patients which helps fight against cancer cells. Moreover, the immature leaves are grinded to make herbal tea which is good to reduce Diabetes.

Jack fruit helps fight many diseases due to its many medicinal values and also the jack tree is a tree that needs no fertilizer to grow so it is an alcohol-free tree and also its roots reject outside germs, bacteria and diseases which increases the immunity in body when it is eaten and it gives fairness for the human skin. From the past, steamed jack and “polos curry” are given to pregnant mothers and also to the breast-feeding mothers as it believes that it is good for the growth of the baby and good to increase the level of secretion of milk of mothers. 

As mentioned above, it is seen that jack fruit, jack leaves, jack seeds, jack bark and the whole tree itself is equally important in every way. Jack fruit is actually the jack flower bunch turned to a fruit, so through this little flower bunch many needs can be fulfilled and can also act as a supplement for a whole meal itself by all these through products made from it. It can be said that through the advancement of technology and machines even more products could be made using jack and once could be able to be a supplementary food for all types of food as it is healthier and need only small amounts to fulfill ones hunger and someday be known worldwide.

Sources by – Mr. Lalith Manjula.