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| Sunday, 2 June 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Processing Jak The Associated Newspaper of Ceylon Limited (ANCL) initiators of the Project to extend the cultivation of jak trees and popularise related products, seek assistance from the public for their project to plant hundred thousand jak trees islandwide on June 11, 2002. Jak-fruit saplings about 2 1/2 - 4 months old are sought from the public. Individuals and organisations interested in granting Jak-fruit saplings are requested to write to the Coordinating Secretary, Jak Popularisation Project, C/o Silumina, Lake House, Colombo 10. by Vimukthi Fernando
Dehydrating mature jak-fruit Obtain a mature jak-fruit. Cut into pieces, clean, remove seeds and separate the segments or bulbs (madulu). Cut the segments into thin slices and dip in cold water. For blanching - place the thinly cut jak-fruit slices in a small bag made of cotton cloth and then dip the bag in boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain the water and dry. Employ mechanical drying at 60 degrees Centigrade or sun-dry. When it reaches the required moisture content about 7% to 8% and the pieces become snappy and brittle it is ready for packaging. Pack in polythene or other suitable containers and seal. This could be kept for over 6 months. Dehydrated jak-fruit segments could be re-hydrated by immersing it in water for about 5-10 minutes and cooked as a white curry (kiri kos). The dried jak-fruit could also be deep fried and consumed similar to potato chips. It could also be sweetened, spiced or salted to suit ones palate. Powdered jak-fruit could be used in bakery products as a substitution for rice flour or wheat flour. Bottling Waraka and Vela in sugar syrup Clean the ripe jak-fruit and separate the segments. Prepare a sugar syrup keeping the proportions at 300 grams of sugar for 700 ml water. Filter the syrup and keep aside. Pack the waraka/vela segments in pre-sterilised bottles. Pour hot sugar syrup over the segments. Employ the exhausting process. Stand the bottles vertically in a vessel with boiling water. Heat the water until fumes emanate from the sugar solution. Seal the bottles with lids. Then, go through the retorting process. Submerge the sealed bottles in hot water and boil for about 15 minutes. Take the bottles out, drain the water and let it cool. This product has a shelf life of over one year. Jak-fruit cordial Jak-fruit cordial is usually made out of vela, the variety with the soft pulp. Clean, seed and separate vela segments. Using a liquidiser, separate the juice. Add sugar and boil until a thick syrup is formed. Pour into pre-serialized bottles and use the processes of exhausting and retorting. For those who prefer a different flavour other fruits such as mango and pineapple could be mixed with jak-fruit at the ratio of 10% other fruits to 90% jak-fruit. For production at commercial scale, to enable longer shelf life 600 milligrams of Potassium Meta bi-Sulphite could be added per one litre of syrup. |
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News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Last week, Mr. Senarath Ekanayeka, Research Officer of the Agriculture
Department's Peradeniya Food Research Unit - who conducts research on jak-fruit
based products offered his experience and expertise to our readers on jak-fruit
processing. In this article he explains the methods of dehydrating mature
jak-fruit segments/bulbs (madulu) and preserving the ripe fruit.
