Recipe for Pineapple Gojju - A sweet sour spicy pineapple curry from Karnataka

When Ratna shared a photo of pineapple gojju in the making on her Instagram feed, I knew I wanted to make it and taste it. It promised of tastebud-awakening sweet, spicy and sour flavours, when had with steaming hot rice and a spoonful of ghee- ah heaven! She was kind enough to share the recipe with me. This is my adaptation of her gojju recipe, with a little alteration in the quantity of spices and dals to suit my tastes. Go check her superb book called 'How the Banana Goes to Heaven' - which has a detailed history of some of the foods we eat and interesting recipes too!

Gojju is a kind of curry from Karnataka, which is made using a variety of seasonal vegetables / fruits such as pineapple, mango, bitter gourd, okra or even tomato and onion.

RECIPE for Pineapple Gojju - Indian Pineapple Curry

Sweet and sour pineapple curry from Karnataka

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 medium sized pineapple

2 tsp coconut oil**

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1-2 sprigs curry leaves

2 dried red chillies

pinch of asafoetida

1 tsp tamarind paste* (I use Dabur Homemade)

1 cup water

1 tsp salt

1 inch piece of jaggery (optional)

For Masala 

2 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds

1 tbsp chana dal

1 tbsp udad dal

4 dried red chillies

1/2 cup fresh or frozen grated coconut (unsweetened)

Optional garnish tempering:

1-2 tsp coconut oil**, 2 dried red chillies, few curry leaves and pinch of mustard seeds

Directions

Peel and prepare the pineapple into bite sized cubes, or buy the ready prepared pineapple. If using canned, then choose one that is NOT canned in sugar syrup.

In a heavy bottomed wok or a pan, heat 2 tsp coconut oil. Add the 2 red chillies, mustard seeds, curry leaves and pinch of asafoetida. Add the pineapple cubes and toss for a few seconds. Add the water, tamarind paste / pulp, bring to a simmer.

Cover and cook till somewhat soft - this should take 8-10 minutes, but do check that it doesn't turn mushy.

While the pineapple is simmering, in a smaller pan, toast the ingredients for the masala (except the coconut) until the chana dal is golden brown. You can toast each of them individually if you have more time on hand, such that the cumin, coriander and fenugreek seeds are lightly aromatic, the dals are golden brown and the red chillies crisp up.

Grind this along with the coconut to a fine paste, using upto 1/2 cup water.

Add this paste to the nearly cooked pineapple pieces and bring to a simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Remove into a serving bowl.

Heat the oil for tempering in a small ladle / pan. In hot oil, splutter mustard seeds, red chillies and curry leaves and transfer on the top of the curry.

Serve with steamed rice.

The same curry can also be made with a semi-ripe mango.

*If you dont have tamarind paste, then soak a lemon sized ball of tamarind in 1/2 cup hot water for 15 minutes and squeeze out the pulp and use that in the curry.

**Coconut oil imparts a lovely depth of flavour to the dish. If you don't have it on hand, or if you don't like the taste of it, by all means use any other neutral flavoured cooking oil. 

The colour of the curry in the photo is somewhat darker due to the tamarind paste I've used, if you use the pulp, you'll get a more golden yellow hue and the consistency turned out thicker in my case as I had approximated from Ratna's recipe. I have adjusted the ingredients in the recipe here to get the correct consistency, which should be somewhat thinner than a thick dal. 

5 of us foodbloggers have undertaken an interesting project for 2015 - just something fun to keep the blogging mojo going. It's called 'theKitchenDivas' and will have a theme going for each month, wherein we will try to do a post a week. The theme for January 2015 is Karnataka Cuisine and gojju which is a favourite curry from this state, is my first post to kick off the series.

You can find more Traditional Recipes from Karnataka by #TheKichenDivas

Maddur Vada by FunFoodFrolic

Bisi Bele Bhaath Masala by WhiskAffair

Kundapur Ghee Roast by Sinamon Tales

Pan Fried Mysore Bonda by Archana's Kitchen