Jackfruit chips (Pansa baLka)

Jackfruit is one of the most loved fruits at my place, ranking second after mango. During season, both ripe and unripe fruit is used in many different dishes. The edible part of the fruit is called ghare(Konkani) or soLe(Kannada), there must be some English name for it, which I don’t know.

Making these chips is one of the sweet memories of my childhood. Raw, but firm and fresh jackfruits, just out of the tree, are used for this. The fruit needs to be completely grown and have firm and thick flesh.

First of all, coconut oil is applied to hands and all the knifes which are used to cut these, since they have a lot of gum. To stop the gum falling on floor, newspapers are spread on ground. It was a painstaking process to take out the pieces off the skin- The innermost white portion (mav in Konkani) and the outermost thick, rough skin(sali in Konkani) with some white portion is removed and discarded. This helps in easy removal of the edible pieces. Now the big firm pieces are removed carefully. The pieces are cut in long pieces and the seeds are discarded. These long pieces are the ones used for chips.

I am not sure how much the last paragraph will help anyone visualize the whole process. I could not find jackfruit suitable for this anywhere here. So I am not able to upload any pictures. When I go to India next time during jackfruit season, I will surely click pictures of it.

My grandfather would search such jackfruits from our yard and aayi would prepare these amazingly tasty chips. These were prepared in large batches. My brother and I would finish almost half the batch when aayi used to make this. We loved the taste of hot chips. She used coconut oil, so the shelf life of these chips was quite high.

Ingredients:
Jackfruit cut into long pieces (pieces should be very firm)
Oil
Turmeric powder
Salt

Method:
Mix 3 tea spns salt, 1/2 tea spn turmeric with about 1 cup water and keep aside.
Heat oil and deep fry the jackfruit in it. When it is almost done(you can say this by the sound. Initially when the pieces are not fried, you won’t get any sound, as they get fried, you can clearly hear the sound when you mix the pieces with a spoon), pour 1-2 tea spns of the salt-turmeric water in it. Fry till completely done.

PS: – The amount of salt water to be added can be adjusted only after tasting the first batch. As time passes, the oil retains some salt and becomes really salty. So keep tasting it to check correct taste.
– When the salted water is added to hot oil, oil splashes out and makes a huge sound. So make sure to stand away from the stove.
– After taking out, when the pieces are still hot, a tea spn of chili powder can be sprinkled on it, for extra taste.

26 thoughts on “Jackfruit chips (Pansa baLka)”

  1. Reminds me of the days in native place during summer vacations, when my mamama with the help of her daughters and grand daughters would make this for a family of over 100 people. It would be stored in huge biscuit tins/containers. I guess we would not be able to find the right type of jackfruit, here even if we want to. You made my day by the sight of the pansa katri.

  2. Shilpa,
    These chips were alws at my place, but frm the Mangalore stores.The details abt how the jf is plucked,cleaned is amazing! Preparing this will need a lots of patience! Plus the cheek(gum)untu untu!
    Hats off to ur Aayi & U!Tks for posting!

  3. Jackfruit chips taste really different. I used to buy this from store. I will try this during my next trip to India.
    Your description of the process is more than enough for one to understand. Lovely explanation.

  4. Shilpa!

    Pansa karo looks yumm!
    I love these pansa karo(jackfruit chips).My mom makes this and we had so mnay jackfruit trees, and only one tree had the best jackfruit which was suitable for making chips and they were the best, have not come accross such chips anywhere till today!Miss it!

  5. Hi Shilpa!
    Panas Balka chips look nice. First time heard of making chips with jackfruit. Will share it among friends and family. Is it the same method to do banana chips which my little daughter loves a lot

    Shipa: Yes iswaree, its the same method. After peeling the bananas, put them in water for some time. Then take them out, cut them, then spread on a clean cloth till they are dry. Then you can make chips in same way.

  6. hi shilpa,
    great blog u have here !i too have fond memories of childhood relating to jf chips…in our native idgunji(karwar)where we used to spend summer hols,they wud fry these HUGE batch of chips in a HUGE kadai in the open courtyard n yes they wud vanish instantly…thinks what gives them the unique taste is the frying in coconut oil..i also liked the other shape jf chips…the triangular ones…
    rgds
    anita

  7. The jackfruit seeds would be dried and saved in their crisy white skins to be used in other things. They would be cooked with lentils or beans and served with coconut sauce as masalo curries. Or they would be roasted on coals and eaten just as a snack.In a village people used to be frugal so nothing was thrown away. The jackfruit skins and other waste was fed to cows.

  8. hey this is really cool….recipe.i didn’t know that we can make these i useually eat the ripe jackfruit.i love it.thank u for this yummy…….munchies

  9. Hello! I just wanted to let you know you are invoking so many memories for me. Your food is similar to what my mother makes! She is koknastha altho we are from Pune but similar food and similar words. Hope you keep going 🙂

    And yes! Jackfruit chips are great…we call it Phanas in marathi.

  10. Hi, can the frozen raw jackfruits be used for this? I ve got 2 pkts of frozen one’s. So thought will do.. Do u have any idea?

  11. Shilpa,
    I love you.. :). I have been looking for this recipe everywhere. I love the gharen karo and have been able to eat it only when i go to india…

    i will try it this weekend.

    Kiran

  12. Shilpa, I bought jackfruit from the spanish store that just turned ripe. They are not too ripe, but firm & sweet. Do you think these could be used to make the chips?

    Anupama

  13. MADHAVI DHARANKAR

    Shilpa,

    thanks for sharing the memories as well as the recipe. i had been looking for the procedure of making jack fruit chips. Am waiting for the jack fruits to be available by next week. Shall certainly try the procedure and then get back to u.

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