Jackfruit kottige | Halasina hannu gatti
Jackfruit kottige takes me back home to Mangaluru, a beautiful coastal city in the south of India. Jackfruits are celebrated in the region. Us Mangaloreans absolutely love this fruit!
Varieties of savory dishes are prepared using raw/tender jackfruits. They are also preserved in brine for later use. Raw jackfruit chips are made by thinly slicing the petals and deep frying them. Oh, those taste fabulous! The list is endless! Jackfruit is called Halasina hannu in Kannada. I could write an entire blog post about Halasina hannu mania in Mangalore, hmmm.. thinking about it, maybe I should 🙂
When jackfruits ripen, many varieties of sweet dishes are prepared. One such sweet dish is Jackfruit kottige. Kottige is also called as gatti or kadubu in some regions. Jackfruit kottige is typically eaten for breakfast. To balance out the sweetness, it is paired with a spicy coconut chutney like this Kempu chutney
What is Jackfruit kottige | kadubu | gatti
Jackfruit kottige is a steamed rice cake, wrapped in banana leaves and flavoured with jackfruits. Imagine it to be the Indian tamale. Kottige/gatti/kadubu is traditionally steamed by wrapping the batter in banana leaves or teak leaves. Both the leaves add to the flavour while teak leaves also give a brownish colour to the kottige/gatti.
Jackfruit kottige is usually eaten for breakfast and is typically prepared the night before. The texture of kottige improves as it cools down. Right out of the steamer, it may be sticky.
There was a time when I thought kottige was hard to make, but once I actually started preparing it, I really feel it is not! I prepare them the night before, for breakfasts on weekends, which means I can actually sleep in on weekends! Ha! Now what’s easier than NOT having to worry about breakfast on a weekend 🙂 So come on y’all, let’s do it! It’s really not as hard as you think 🙂
Ingredients to make Jackfruit kottige | jackfruit gatti | jackfruit kadubu
Jackfruits – Kottige is a sweet dish, so ripened Jackfruits are used in this recipe.
In the USA, it is not hard to find fresh jackfruits when it is in season. A few Costco’s carry it too. I usually buy mine at Asian grocery stores. If you have a 99 ranch market near you, head there, as they usually have unbeatable prices for jackfruits.
I have never used canned jackfruits in this recipe, if you do, please do let me know how they turned out!
Rice – I use a type of rice called Sona Masoorie to make kottige. It can be found in Indian grocery stores. Sams club and Costco too sometimes carry this variety.
I have not tested the recipe with other varieties of rice but my guess is that any variety of rice that’s not too sticky will work okay.
Coconut – Fresh coconut is used in this recipe. Not dry-dessicated. Fresh grated coconuts can be found frozen at Indian grocery stores and also other Asian grocery stores.
Jaggery – Jaggery is a kind of unrefined Indian sugar. As it is unrefined, it has a caramel/molasses like flavour. You could replace jaggery with palm sugar, coconut sugar or even brown sugar as it has molasses in it.
Jaggery can be found at Indian grocery stores.
Cardamom – While optional, I like to add some cardamom in kottige for extra flavour 🙂
Step-by-step instructions
Prepare banana leaves
Clean the leaves. Cut them into squares or rectangles, about 9-10 inch long. Move the leaves over your stove. You will see the colour change as they are heated. Take care not to burn the leaf. Heating them makes them pliable so they do not tear on folding.
Make the batter for jackfruit gatti/kottige
In a blender, blend together soaked rice + fresh coconut + jaggery + salt + cardamom powder.
Adding very little water, blend into a paste. The rice should be very slightly coarse, like semolina or the finest upma rava. We want this paste to be thick.
For one cup of rice, I use two cups of chopped jackfruit. Finely chop the jackfruit or coarsely blend it.
Mix the rice batter and jackfruit pulp together to make the batter for kottige.
steam cook kottige
Get a steamer ready by bringing water to a boil.
Take a banana leaf and spoon batter onto it. Fold the sides like shown in the pictures to make a packet.
Place the kottige, folded side down in the steamer. Placing the kottige folded side down will prevent them from opening up. You can place one packet over another.
If banana leaves are not available you can steam them in idly stands, individual stainless steel/silicone cups or wrapped in aluminium foil or corn husks.
Cover and cook for 40-45 minutes.
How to serve Jackfruit kottige/halasina hannu gatti
As kottige is traditionally served for breakfast, the traditional practice is to prepare it the night before. Preparing ahead also helps in another way. Kottige right out of the steamer can be a little sticky. The texture always improves as it cools down. If preparing for lunch, I suggest resting it for an hour right in the steamer, before serving.
Kottige can be eaten plain as it is flavourful on its own. Add a dollop of ghee on top and serve with coconut chutney for a traditional breakfast experience.
Check out a few other super simple Havyaka curry dishes like Ivy gourd curry , Coconut-yogurt curry(Majjige huli) and Potato yogurt salad(potato mosaru gojju).
Also check seasonal recipes like this Mango sasive
Jackfruit kottige | Halasina hannu gatti | Jackfruit kadubu
Equipment
- I use standard measuring cups to measure ingredients for my recipes.
- blender/mixer-grinder
- Steaming apparatus
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice I use 'sona masoorie' variety
- 2 cups chopped ripe jackfruit
- ¼ cup fresh/frozen coconut
- 2 tbsp jaggery/any unrefined sugar increase or decrease based on sweetness of jackfruits. Mine was very sweet.
- ¼-½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp cardamom powder optional
Instructions
- Wash and soak the rice for at-least 4 hours or overnight.
Prepare banana leaves
- If using banana leaves, clean them well and cut into squares or rectangles, about 10 inches long.
- Move the banana leaves over your stove. This step is important as it will make the leaves pliable enough to be folded. They can otherwise tear.
Make batter for kottige
- Defrost coconut if using frozen.
- In a blender add coconut, jaggery, rice, cardamom, salt, 1/8 cup water and blend. Do not add a lot of water as we need a thick batter. Rice should still be slightly coarse after blending.Note: As coarse as semolina/the finest upma rava.
- Take the batter out into a bowl.
- In the same blender jar, coarsely blend the jackfruit. Jackfruit can also be chopped very finely instead of blending.
- Mix the rice batter and jackfruit together. It will be a thick batter. We do not need a lot of water in the batter as we are using 2 parts of jackfruit to 1 part of rice.
Steam cook kottige
- Prepare your steaming apparatus by setting the water to boil.
- When steamer begins to steam, start assembling the kottige.
- Take a prepped banana leaf and spoon batter on it. Check notes below to learn how to steam without banana leaves.
- Fold it to make a packet.
- Place kottige folded side down in the steamer. You can place them one over the other.
- Steam for 40-45 minutes on medium heat. Note – the heat should be at a level where you can see some steam come out of the steamer.
- The texture of kottige improves when it is allowed to cool down.
Video
Notes
- aluminium foil
- corn husks
- idly steamer
- individual stainless steel cups or silicone cups.Â
where did you get banana leaves in the united states? Thank you so much for the recipe i am going to try it.
I live in Dallas and I can find banana leaves in Indian stores. They are also available frozen in Asian stores, although I have not personally tried using the frozen ones. Thank you for checking out the recipe! Alternatively, you can try steaming it in idly stand or in dry corn husks that are available in most stores.
My favorite 😋😋
Yay!
One of my favorites! This looks so good, drooling here 😋
Thank you so much!