Ananas Sasam/Pineapple Sasve Recipe | Pineapple in Coconut-Mustard Curry

Learn how to make Ananas Sasam/Pineapple Sasve ~ Pineapple cooked in a sweet, sour, hot and pungent coconut and mustard curry

After spending one week at home, I am back at work today. Last Friday I found myself a target for one of the worst cases of migraine in the last couple of years and all I could do was just lie down on bed after popping few painkillers. The idiot box was quiet on and the book I was reading was left untouched on the coffee table. The heavy curtains were drawn close to stop the brilliant sunrays entering the room as I tried very hard to sleep in the dark bedroom.

Pineapple Kesari Bhath/Suji ka Halwa Recipe | Pineapple & Semolina Pudding for Deepavali

Pineapple Kesari Bhath or Suji ka Halwa

Fill the Heart with the oil of love.
Place in it the wick of single-pointed mind.
Light it with the Knowledge of Truth and remove
the darkness of ignorance around you.
Just as one lamp can light many lamps; let each
youth kindle this Light in many hearts.'
~Unknown

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Hot and Sour Vegetable Soup

This has to be the shortest autumn here in my neck of wood. We enjoyed long, sunny and unbelievably warm summer this year. Just when the leaves turned to gorgeous shades of yellow, red and orange, the gushing wind and heavy downpour undressed the trees and now they stand almost naked with few leaves hanging there for their dear life. With dropping temperature and cold wind blowing at high speeds, UK is officially ready to welcome winter. Brrrr….

Tofu & Pineapple Thai Yellow Curry: Sunshine, at least, in My Bowl!

Tofu & Pineapple Thai Yellow Curry

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
~John Ruskin

Pineapple Rasam to Tantalise your Taste Buds...

Pineapple Rasam

Rasams rule our dinner menu’s in winters and for that matter, even in summers. Gently steamed bowl of rice and a ladleful of spicy and tangy Rasam with crunchy Papadams top my comfort food category. This is a type of food which can lift your mood and sooth your spirit. This is a type of food that warms your heart and takes you down the wonderful memory lane.

Talking of Rasams or Saaru as we call in Kannada, you will be amazed to find hundreds of recipes of making it with different ingredients. While Tomato Rasam is my favourite one, Lemon, Coconut, Horse gram, Kokum etc are few more varieties of Rasams I enjoy quite often. Apart from these, there is one more Rasam that my Amma used to cook for us when she was short of time and ingredients. And that one is Pineapple Rasam which my mother had learnt from her sister.

My Chikkamma’s recipe of Pineapple Rasam is very simple, uses very few ingredients and quick to make. It is one of the best examples of using fruits in savoury recipes. I make it quite often when I am feeling bit too lazy to cook lentils and chop vegetables. Few cups of fresh or canned Pineapple cubes cooked along ginger and green chillies for spiciness, tamarind pulp for tingling sourness and jaggery or palm sugar for sweet note is a tingling sensation of three flavours to your taste buds. Addition of Rasam Powder makes this simple Rasam more flavoursome and redefines the simplicity in cooking. Yes, you don’t need basketful of ingredients and cup full of spices to cook something exciting and exotic. Just handful of ingredients and pinches of spices is enough to tantalise your senses and touch your soul.

Pineapple and Rasam Powder for Pineapple Rasam

Print This Recipe

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Pineapple Rasam (Sweet, Sour and Spicy Pineapple Soup)

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 15-20 mins
Serves: 3-4
Recipe Source: Chikkamma, my Aunt
Recipe Level: Easy/Beginner
Spice Level: Low to Medium
Serving Suggestion: With steam cooked rice and papad

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Ingredients:
2-3 cups Pineapple, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1-2 Green Chilli, slit (Adjust acc to taste)
½ tsp Ginger, crushed and finely chopped
½ - 1 tbsp Rasam Powder, homemade or store bought (Adjust acc to taste)
¼ tsp Turmeric Powder
½ tsp Tamarind Paste or 1 small marble sized Tamarind Pulp
½-1 tbsp Jaggery or Palm Sugar (Adjust acc to taste)
5 Black Pepper Corns, crushed (Optional)
1 tbsp Coriander Leaves, finely chopped
Salt to taste

For Tadka/Tempering:
½ tbsp Ghee or Oil
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
1 tsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds
¼ tsp Hing/Asafoetida
1 Dry Red Chilli, halved
Few Curry Leaves

Pineapple Rasam

Method:

Take 4 cups of water in a pan and add rasam powder, jaggery and tamarind extract to it. Bring this to gentle boil over medium heat.
Now add cubed pineapple pieces along with slit green chillies, ginger, turmeric powder, crushed peppercorns and salt to taste. Simmer the heat and cook it covered for 10 mins. Remove the lid and bring this rasam to a boil and cook it for another 2-3 mins.
Mean while heat ghee/oil in a pan and add mustard seeds to it. When it starts to pop and splutter, add cumin seeds, halved red chillies, hing and curry leaves. Roast the spices till they are fragrant, for about 1 minute.
Transfer the tadka/tempering to the rasam.
Add finely chopped coriander leaves and cover the pan and let it rest for 5 more minute for all the flavours to blend well. Serve hot with steam cooked white rice and Papadams and enjoy.

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Notes:

• Sometimes I add a cup of cooked dal water while making this Rasam.
• Puree a cupful of Pineapple cubes and add this juice while making the Rasam to get distinct pineapple flavour in gravy.
• Use Sambar Powder if you are out of Rasam Powder or skip using the Rasam Powder and add chilli powder, coriander powder and jeera powder in it's place.

On other note, my office work has kept me away from replying to your comments, mails and blog-hopping. Hopefully I should be able to post recipes and blog-hop regularly from next month. So friends, please bear with me for a while.
And do hop to dear Sailu's blog for my article on Exploring Udupi-Mangalorean Street Foods, part of her wonderful series of Indian Food Trail.

Pineapple Menaskai

I love to eat fresh pineapple. It is sweet, juicy, healthy and delicious. When Maheshwari of Beyond The Usual chose this tropical fruit for this month’s AFAM I was overjoyed. With it came the confusion as what to cook. I didn’t want to cook any sweet dish of pineapple as most of my blogger buddies have cooked almost all the recipes available. So here I am with my recipe of Pineapple Menaskai which is my all time favourite dish.
Menaskai is a sweet, tangy and spicy side dish which is usually served during any family functions and weddings in my native. The main 3 ingredients in menaskai are coconut, red dry chillies and jaggery and depending on seasonal availability, bitter gourd or mango or pineapple are used to make it.

Pineapple Menaskai

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Pineapple Menaskai
Prep Time: 5-10 mins
Cooking Time: 10-15 mins
Serves: 3-4

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Ingredients:
2 cups Pineapple
¾ cup Coconut
2 tbsp Sesame
4-5 Dry Red Chillies
1 marble sized Tamarind
1-2 tbsp Jaggery
1 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste
For Seasoning:
1 tbsp Oil
1 tsp Mustard
1 Dry Red Chillies
Few Curry Leaves

Pineapple Menaskai

Method:
Peel the outer skin of pineapple and dice them into 1 cm squares.
Cook them with 1½ cups of water, tamarind, jaggery and salt to taste.
Cook pineapple till it becomes soft in medium flame.
In a mean while, take a pan and dry roast sesame till it turns golden and keep it aside.
Take a tbsp of oil and sauté broken red chilli and grated coconut till it turns golden.
Grind this coconut, red chilli and sesame to smooth paste adding little water.
Add this ground paste to cooked pineapple and mix well.
Cook this in a medium flame till the gravy starts to boil.
Reduce the flame and cook for further 4-5 minutes till gravy starts thickening.
Season it with mustard, curry leaves and broken red chillies.
Serve hot with rice and enjoy.

Pineapple Menaskai

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Tips:
You can substitute pineapple with bitter gourd or medium ripe mangoes also.
If you are making bitter gourd menaskai, increase the amount of tamarind to lime sized balls to tamper its bitterness.
Adjust the sweetness and spiciness according to your taste.

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Pineapple Menaskai

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Did You Know?
First called “anana”, a Carribean word for “excellent fruit”, the name “pineapple” came from European explorers who thought the fruit looked like a pinecone with flesh like an apple.
The Spanish explorers thought pineapples looked like pinecones, so they called them "Pina." The English added "apple" to associate it with juicy delectable fruits.
Of all the New World discoveries of Columbus, pineapples were the fruits that caused the biggest stir back home.
In a Caribbean rite of manhood, barefoot youths ran through pineapple plantings and were expected to bear the resulting wounds without protest.
Caribbean Indians placed pineapples or pineapple crowns outside the entrances of their homes to symbolize friendship and hospitality.
(Source: www.dole5aday.com)

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Pineapple Menaskai

Ugadi Habbada Haardika Shubashayagalu

Wishing You and Your Family A Happy Ugadi

(Image Source: www.alochana.org)