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Recipe: Sweetness Meets Nutrition – Mexican-Style Pineapple Salad

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With the fruit being in season, a wonderful meal of Thai-style pineapple rice led to an equally delicious pineapple curry, as you may have enjoyed recently too. I’m delighted to conclude this recipe series with a Mexican-style pineapple salad that I hope you’ll be just as excited by! As I had mentioned in one of the previous posts, I often grill pineapple for dessert. If you already have cut pineapple on hand, as I do with the abundance of it on the market right now, it’s so easy to do. As I was preparing some the other day, it occurred to me that grilled pineapple could make a perfect salad ingredient. In the magical way that food does, the idea transported me back to travels in South America, and I knew just how to prepare the dish.

I feel like I mention this in pretty much every blog post, but it’s true: I’ve been consuming a low-carbs menu for some months now, and am on a constant quest to diversify it. Salads are a reliable way to do so, and I’m always looking for new methods of preparing dishes in this category. You can turn this salad into a more complete meal by adding black or brown rice to it, which will fill you up while also being more nourishing than white rice. As an aside, if you’re a fan of black rice, be sure to try out this sticky rice and mango pudding from my archives. Also, while we’re on the subject of Mexican-inspired dishes, do try my peach salsa and Mexican-influenced Buddha Bowl recipes out too!

Despite my carbs-free diet, which I abide by as much as I can, I have also been trying to be kinder to myself about slipping off the bandwagon. Attempting to inculcate a mindset of judging my own food choices less is a work in progress, but it’s also a matter of practice. I know many of us struggle with this, which is why I’m sharing my own efforts to strike a balance. So nowadays, instead of chastising myself because a certain item or an extra helping may impact my health negatively, I am telling myself: “This will nourish me and give me joy”. Rather than eat something rich while feeling miserable and guilty about its sugar or carb quotient, which reduces my pleasure in the food or beverage itself, I am making it a point to mindfully enjoy it. This is a better attitude than self-criticism. It also helps you moderate your diet when you look at all parts of it the same way, rather than only the parts of it that you consider indulgent. Moderation in greens, moderation in goodies, and so on. It’s perfectly okay to eat what you’d like to eat – just eat it in the portions that are best for you.

This salad, as nutritious as it is, began with just such a spark of choosing joy over judgment. Of course I could have eaten the pineapple raw, but grilling it brought out flavours to the fruit that it wouldn’t have gotten to experience otherwise. Then, warm memories of a trip to Mexico embellished the rest of the recipe in my head: corn, jalapeños, kidney beans and chipotle sauce found their way into it. The result? Delicious, craving-satisfying and loaded with nutritional value even while it also packs a punch in the taste department.

One of the things I love about this dish is that while it’s internationally-inspired, the ingredients are locally grown or easily available. This gave me the idea of not just grilling the pineapple, but also giving the corn the Indian street food treatment. I wanted to bring the flavour of the wonderful roasted corn that we get at beaches all over India into the dish too, so I added some lemon and chilli powder and prepared that separately.

With the five year anniversary of this blog approaching (do follow me on Instagram for some celebratory fun soon!), I’ve been thinking about the broad range of recipes covered here, and I noticed that one of the things that many recipes have in common is that you can cook them no matter where you are. The ingredients used are largely simple and widely available, and the substitutes you can use to make them local or seasonal for you should be pretty intuitive. For instance, for this recipe, I found and ordered chipotle online, to add a bit of authentically Mexican flavour. If you’re unable to source it yourself, using paprika – which incidentally also originated in Mexico but which is widely available in supermarkets in India and abroad – will easily create the ideal dressing alternative. As I say often: good cooks always innovate, with what’s in reach!

 

Mexican-Style Pineapple Salad

(Yield: Serves 2)

 

1 medium-sized pineapple

⅓ cup finely chopped spring onion

2 tablespoons chopped jalapeños

½ cup kidney beans (rajma)

1 roasted whole corn

¼ cup coriander leaves

¼ cup finely diced bell peppers

 

Dressing

Juice of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon taco seasoning

1 teaspoon chipotle chilli (substitute: paprika)

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon olive oil

 

Slice the clean pineapple into circles. Grill approximately 2 cups of chopped slices in the oven or on a pan until charred. Allow to cool, then cut into small pieces and add to the bowl. Then, add the remaining vegetables.

Mix the dressing ingredients in a cup and pour over the assembled salad. Serve with some crunched-up nacho chips. If you have some fresh avocado, or some guacamole, these will also make a perfect accompaniment.

The nacho chips that I sprinkled over the salad evoked the texture of the maida-based tostada bowls that I’ve enjoyed similar Mexican salads in while travelling in the United States. Scrumptious and crispy, the bowl is a treat to eat along with the salad and the guacamole that is customarily served. While I know how it’s made, I don’t have a mould to make them with, and I’m wondering how to improvise. Would you have any suggestions? I’d love to scoop some of my Mexican-style pineapple salad into a homemade tostada bowl next time, and enjoy that crunchiness too!

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Recipe: Still Peckish For Pineapple – Pineapple Curry

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My pineapple craving only increased after my recent pineapple rice recipe, so I decided to go ahead and make another dish using that fabulous fruit. This pineapple curry has been a part of my repertoire for quite a while now. It is my own take on a pineapple curry, developed after many enquiries amongst friends over a long time. While asking around, I found that pineapple is used in a similar preparation, either in a curry or a rasam, by many communities in India. I always find it so heart-warming to discover that a cherished ingredient is enjoyed by so many. It’s amazing how versatile we ourselves are as cooks and consumers, imagining interesting ways to eat and continuously learning, even though it is the ingredients themselves that we usually consider versatile.

My earliest experiences with pineapple curry were at my dear friend Girija’s house when we were children. You may remember Girija from her exceptional stew recipe, and her pineapple curry one was also the base on which I built my own version, adding things that stood out to me from other friends’ versions. To this day, we have a tradition of exchanging recipes. She teaches me Malayali ones, while I teach her Gujarati ones (there’s a wide selection of the latter on this blog too). I then adapt the recipes to suit our palates at home. I’m sure most of us do the same whenever we pick up a new one, which is why I’m always curious to hear from you about how you’ve prepared the ones I share here.

This pineapple curry, with its natural hint of sweetness, is highly suitable for the notorious Gujarati sweet tooth. My husband absolutely loves it, and rest assured that there are never any leftovers on days when I make it at home. He polishes off the pan to the extent that I often have to remind him to leave some for me. That’s exactly what happened after my photo shoot for this post!

What makes this curry even sweeter is my addition of coconut milk or grated coconut. Funnily, this ingredient that appears so often in Kerala cuisine doesn’t play a part in Girija’s recipe, but it does in mine. I find that as a tropical fruit, pineapple is well-complemented by coconut, which is another form of tropical produce. At the moment, the coconut trees in my backyard have yielded a bounty. I have a profusion of fresh coconut milk at home as a result, and alongside the sweet seasonal pineapple, this recipe came together beautifully. That reminds me – have you checked out the coconut series from a few months ago, and tried out my coconut podi and coconut pudding recipes too?

On the note of continuing to learn about all things food-related – in my previous post, I had mentioned that my son has been experimentally growing miniature pineapples. I was a bit surprised when I started seeing these at the florist too. Baby pineapples (a hybrid, I suspect), so adorably nestled amidst blooms and leaves of all kinds. I found them so eye-catching, and I wondered how this decorative usage came into being. Would you happen to know?

Pineapple Curry

(Serves 2-4)

½ cup grated fresh coconut

3 dry red chillies

2 tablespoons urad dal

3 tablespoons tamarind paste

1½ cups pineapple chunks

2 tablespoons sesame oil

¼ teaspoon mustard seeds

A few curry leaves

1 cup hot water

1 cup coconut milk

Salt to taste

1 tablespoon jaggery

In a pan, dry roast each of these ingredients separately, until each is toasted: the coconut, the urad dal and the dry red chillies. While they are still hot, blend them together, along with the tamarind paste. Set aside.

In another kadai, add oil. Once it’s hot, add the mustard seeds. Allow to splutter and then add the curry leaves.

Add the pineapple chunks. Cover and allow to cook until tender.

Next, add the masala prepared earlier and the hot water. Adjust the quantity of water based on the consistency of gravy you prefer, but ensure that it is already warm or hot. Add salt and jaggery (which you can replace with brown sugar) and allow to cook until thick.Finally, add the coconut milk. You can avoid this ingredient if you aren’t a fan of it. Stir and set aside until ready to serve.

As I’ve said in almost every post on Indian food, Indians love flavour combinations in their meals, and sometimes even within a single dish. This dish also offers a wide range, from sweet to spicy. As you can see from the method above, this medley of flavours is quite simple to whip up.

The best partner for this pineapple curry would be plain rice, hot and right out of the pot, with a dollop of ghee. This really does make for the perfect meal. You can also have it with rotis.

I’ve been relishing pineapple so much at the moment that I’ve decided to make this a three-part series. So there’s one more dish coming up next weekend so that you can get even more out of this delicious fruit. In the meanwhile, if you are a fan of fruit in curry, you may also enjoy this lovely guava preparation. As I said earlier, as I say often: I’d love to know how you make it!

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Recipe: Sweet On The Inside – Pineapple Rice

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On a trial basis, my son has been cultivating organic pineapples in Bangalore. They are mini-pineapples, about half the regular size. I had never seen this variant until I visited him shortly after a successful harvest. I found them incredibly sweet, and adorable to look at too. Back home in Chennai, pineapples stayed on my mind, which was perfect timing as they happen to be in season. Considering the possibilities of how to consume the fruit, aside from eating it just as it is, I decided to give making a pineapple rice a shot. As far as I know, this dish is of Thai origin. However, I feel it fits in well with Indian and especially with Gujarati cuisine, given our enjoyment of a bit of sweetness in every preparation. I think the Indian palate in general also likes to have something sweet, something tangy and something spicy at every meal, and this pineapple rice covers all three requirements.

Aside from pineapple rice being my preferred dish at local Thai restaurants, the memory of the one time that I had authentic Thai pineapple rice in Bangkok still lingers in my mind. Those flavours are the ones I am trying to recreate here in this recipe. Bringing culinary experiences from our travels into our own kitchens is a beautiful, and of course delicious, way to preserve those good times.

This dish is only one of the many ways that I use pineapple, one of my favourite fruits, in my cooking. It also makes a frequent appearance at my dining table in my pineapple salsa (you may want to try out my peach salsa, the recipe for which is here). It is my topping of choice when it comes to my homemade pizza, which I make on a sourdough base. Pineapple is a healthy way to satisfy my terrible sweet tooth, so what I do is to add a little jaggery, and then put the slices on a non-stick pan or stick them in the oven. This makes for a completely natural dessert that hits the spot, without any artificial or processed ingredients.

One recipe that I’ve not yet attempted, but hope to have the courage to give a shot one of these days, is my mother’s pineapple upside down cake. She often made it when I was growing up, and it was utterly delicious. I am quite tempted to try… Wish me luck! I’ll certainly keep you posted about my endeavours (most likely on Instagram).

As I said, I love pineapple, and while it would seem from my sharing above that I eat it all the time, this is sadly not true. This wonderful fruit is a pain to peel and slice up, and this often becomes a deterrent to consuming it as much as I’d like to. Yet, it really is worth it every time. Perhaps it is just as it is with everything else in life: whatever is most difficult often has a juicy reward at the end of it. Hard work does pay off. As for how incredibly sweet the pineapple is once you get past the tough exterior – ah, I suppose that’s the case with a lot of people as well. Wouldn’t you agree?

Pineapple Rice

(Serves 2)

 

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 cups cut vegetables (I used carrots, onions, yellow bell peppers and green peas)

½ teaspoon garlic paste

½ teaspoon ginger (grated)

1 red chilli (finely sliced)

1 teaspoon chilli sauce of your choice

2 cups cooked rice

¼ cup water (if required)

2 teaspoons tamari or light soya sauce

1½ teaspoons coconut vinegar

½ teaspoon brown sugar

Salt to taste

1 cup finely chopped pineapple

Finely sliced green onions (to garnish)

 

In a pan, add the oil. Once it has heated, add the cut vegetables. You may use the ones you prefer; as listed above, I have used carrots, onions, yellow bell peppers and green peas. Sauté on a high flame for a few minutes or until al dente. Add the sliced red chilli. Stir well until fragrant. Sprinkle some water if required.

Now, add the cooked rice. Partially cooked rice is best, and this is also a great way to use up any leftover rice that you may have.

Then, add the tamari, salt, chilli sauce, vinegar, brown sugar and another sprinkling of water. Stir well on a high flame. Finally, add the pineapple and mix well again. Garnish with the finely sliced green onions and serve.

Trust me – the moment that you take a bite, you’ll forget the effort it took to peel that pineapple! What the fruit adds to this fried rice is well worth it. It brings together all the elements that make up this dish. Flavours of sweetness and spiciness play harmoniously here. This pineapple rice is perfectly satisfying, evoking the flavours of Thailand while fulfilling Indian tastebuds. I hope you’ll try it out, and that you’ll enjoy it just as much as I do!

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