J is for Jack Fruit

 

A few years ago, my husband and I were visiting Silver Dollar City (an 1880s theme park in Branson, MO) and saw that there was going to be a cooking demonstration in a few minutes. The presenter was Christy Jordan from Southern Plate, and we enjoyed her stories and watching her cook. One of the recipes she demonstrated was for a bar cookie (we got samples!) and it's one of my go-to recipes when I need a quick cookie. I enjoy her blog and have made many of her recipes, all delicious.

I was looking through her recipes for ideas for the A to Z Challenge and came across one for jackfruit bbq sandwich.

I was instantly intrigued.

There is an annual festival and pilgrimage of Vietnamese Catholics in Carthage, Missouri, every August (except the past two years, because of Covid, of course) at an abbey there. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese Catholics from all over the US and Canada come to the town, most of them camping on the grounds of the abbey or in nearby neighborhoods. There is outdoor mass and food and shopping vendors and entertainment and a procession in honor of Our Lady of Fatima (which I accidentally joined one time), and we always attend several of the days and eat amazing pho and wander around the grounds. There are several vendors there selling whole fruits and other foods that are unusual to us, and one of those is the jack fruit. (You can read about one of my visits to Marian Days here and see photos of the event.)

When I accidentally joined the Our Lady
of Fatima parade. I was considerably taller
than the rest of the participants, making
it easier for my family, from whom I had become
separated, to find me in the crowd.

Jack fruit has a very strong scent and looks like an overgrown hedge apple. It's the largest tree-borne fruit in the world, can grow to 40 lbs., and I have never had any interest in trying one.

Those are jack fruit behind the vendor.

According to the Southern Plate recipe, the jack fruit used in this recipe is canned, young, green jackfruit (apparently they don't get stinky until they are ripe) and tastes JUST LIKE PORK and can be used as a "stunningly delicious" meat substitute. Christy has never given me bad recipe advice before, but I was still guarded about this.

I bought a 20 oz. can of jack fruit at a local Asian grocery store (this is not something you can run to Walmart for) and drained and rinsed it. I shredded the pieces of jack fruit as best I could, per the directions, but not all of it wanted to cooperate. After the excess water is kind of squished out of the fruit, it is placed in a medium skillet  and cooked over medium heat with as much bbq sauce as you want. It did finally begin to shred better once the fruit got warmer, but it took my husband working on it to get all the chunks broken up.

Minimal ingredients

Right outta the can

My attempt to break up the pieces.

My husband got it broken down better
than I could. BBQ sauce added.

It looks very much like a BBQ pork sandwich

That's it for the recipe. Serve on a bun once the mixture is warm all the way through. Quick and easy.

I had a rough time taking that first bite. I held a small forkful in front of my mouth for a bit before I finally put it in my mouth. It was....weird. It felt like a dryer, slightly firmer version of pineapple, and it not only didn't FEEL like pork, it didn't taste like pork, either. It didn't really have ANY taste, which I guess is a bit of a blessing, since it sure didn't taste any more like pork than pencil shavings would have.

I put a scoop of the mixture on a bun. It did LOOK the part, at least. I took a bite, a tiny bite, and it tasted like dry, firm, flavorless pineapple tossed with BBQ sauce on a bun.

That's as much as I could do

My husband came in the kitchen to try the finished product. He chewed thoughtfully, then said it tasted better with a bun than plain. He ate the entire sandwich, but he said that was enough to satisfy him indefinitely.

I guess if you were a vegetarian or vegan and had a craving for pulled pork, then this might float your boat. I am neither.

I think I'll consider this an anomaly of Christy's usual recipe offerings, give it an "L" and know that I never need to try jack fruit ever again.