Kochi: “Have jackfruit for breakfast, lunch and evening snack,” says the former director of Microsoft who quit his IT career to pursue his passion which is finding a place for this humble fruit which he claims is a “superfruit” that can even fight cancer.
When James Joseph, founder of Professional Bharthi, a social networking platform that helps fellow desi professionals find their way back to their home towns and villages while continuing their careers, decided to settle at his native place Aluva, near here, a few years ago, he plunged headlong to pursue his passion.
The first challenge before this graduate of the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, was to have a technology to make jackfruit available 365 days. “It is a seasonal fruit which is available for only 60 days. I found out that 80 percent of the fruit is water and developed the method to freeze-dry it.
Five kg of jackfruit can be shrunken to 180 gm this way and can be kept for two years. By putting the product in warm water, you can bring it back to the original bulb form any time,” he said at the ‘special interest track’ session of TiEcon 2013.
Joseph launched JackFruit365.com and went ahead with his quest to create new dishes with it. “What chefs disliked about jackfruit was its messiness. But when it was made available freeze-dried in hygienic packs, they came forward trying various dishes.”
