Saturday, June 11, 2011

Bool Kogi Inspired Jackfruit


Last month I watched Melisser Elliott's (from The Urban Housewife) video on Jackfruit Carnitas. Despite the fact that I have never cared for carnitas or verde sauce the idea was very appealing to me.  I spoke to friends that had eaten jackfruit and they all raved about it so it got me thinking.
A friend of mine made Asian style tacos out of Bool Kogi (Korean sesame BBQ beef) so I started reading up on Bool Kogi recipes.  I knew I had tried it long ago and liked the sweetness but couldn't remember much else about it.  One thing I didn't realize until after purchasing my jackfruit was that most recipes that use it as a meat re-placer call for the type not in syrup but in brine.  Bool kogi recipes call for sweetener whether it be sugar, apples or honey so I went ahead and used the syrup variety of jackfruit I bought.  It has a really sweet flavor similar to the level of sweetness in a sweet and sour sauce (which we liked) but you may want to try the brine type which I will definitely be experimenting with next.
On it's own it was easy to tell it was a canned fruit which tasted good but not what I was expecting. In the tacos it was delicious.  If you opt to try this with the non syrup variety substitute the syrup with maple syrup, brown sugar or apple juice.  The jackfruit really cooks down and had I known how much I was going to like it I probably would have doubled it for the amount of time it took to make.  This recipe will give you 8 tacos.
Side note: In Melissers carnitas she used a slow cooker and after making this I really wish I had one.  If you do I would recommend you trying it that way following the same steps that she used for the carnitas.

2 20 oz cans of jackfruit in syrup
1/8 tsp salt
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 medium onion diced (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup diced green onion
1/4 tsp grated ginger
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp Better Than Bouillon No Beef
2 tbsp jackfruit syrup
1/4 tsp chili pepper sauce
3 tbsp Tamari
1/4 tsp ground pepper

Drain two cans of jackfruit reserving 2 tbsp of the syrup. Rinse jackfruit and set aside.  I used a non-stick pan so I sprinkled the bottom with an 1/8 tsp of salt and heated for a few minutes to make the surface non-stick.  If you are using a non-stick pan, add the salt after you have heated the oil.  Over med/low heat saute sesame seeds in sesame oil for 2 minutes.  Add the ingredients onion through garlic and cook until onions are translucent.  Stir in ingredients from Better Than Bouillon to ground pepper.  Add Jackfruit and stir into sauce.  Turn heat to low and cover.  Stir ever 20 minutes, breaking apart jackfruit.  This process took about 2 1/2 hours.  Towards the end I used a potato masher to help break it down.  Traditional Bool Kogi is served on lettuce leaves which I think would be good or try the tacos we made.

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