Pineapple Rasam/Soup

Pineapple...
It is neither a pine nor an apple, and it is not native to Hawaii.
This is one fruit that no one can hate – juicy , sweet ,sour and fleshy. Smell a freshly cut pineapple – it is divine! Botanists call it Ananas comosus.
I am indeed a big fan of this tropical fruit and incorporate it in many of my sweet sour preparations.
Christopher Columbus is credited with discovering the pineapple on the island of Guadeloupe in 1493, although the fruit had long been grown in South America. The association with Hawaii is more recent and because of the fact that pineapples were first canned in Hawaii.
Sometimes I wonder – Plants make their own food by just using minimal resources – sunlight , water and soil, within their body – Kitchen in the leaf - , how is it that during the course of evolution somehow the animal race forgot how to make food on its own? Having said that, I surely do not like to make my own food. I would think it will be quite boring. If I look at this a little more deeply , life would lose its meaning, as most of the things that we do are directly or indirectly related to feeding ourselves! I vote against a progressive evolution of mankind in specific and animal kind in general towards making their own food. But I also strongly believe that the probability of such evolution is extremely low as I see no signs of an internal kitchen in me or around me!
So let’s get back to our external kitchen and experiment with plant foods – Pineapple Rasam.

Ingredients
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1 Cup chopped Pineapple (You can even use a slightly sour one that you cannot possibly eat as a fruit)
1 Tb Spoon Grated fresh coconut
5 Green chillies( suit your taste)
1 inch ginger
2 Tsp Jeera
2 Cups Dilute Dal (The watery top portion of cooked and well settled tur dal)
1 Tbsp Corainder chopped
Salt to Taste
For Seasoning
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1 twig Curry leaves
1 tsp oil Pinch of hing, haldi, some mustard seeds and jeera

Method
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Cook the pineapple with coconut, chillies till soft (quite a fast process)
Cool it and blend it with ginger and jeera.
Bring this mixture to a boil and add the dilute dal to it . Add water to get the desired consistency. Boil it with some salt for 5 minutes and add the seasoning.
Garnish it with coriander leaves.

You can relish this with hot steamed rice or serve it as a soup.

Pineapple Kesaribath

Long time no write !

Here’s again a simple and quick dish with pineapple flavour.

Goes well with Upma, Shavige bath. This breakfast combo is a common one in Kannada-weddings.

It is also something that people used to serve when the boy-sees-girl meetings happened in the past.

We used to refer to this as UK meetings – Upma-kesaribath meetings – where marriages are made!

So, that’s a divine connection indeed!

Nothing should stop you and me to make this on a normal or a festival day and enjoy the taste and laugh about the UK meetings of the past!

Ingredients

1 cup fine (chiroti) rava

1 3/4 cup water

Few Strands of Saffron

1 cup sugar

½ cup chopped pineapple

2 tbsp Refined oil

2 tbsp Ghee (or more !)

Nuts and raisins

Method:

Roast the rava slightly with 2 tbsp oil (should not become brown at the same time should not smell raw)

Boil the water with pineapple and saffron.

Add the roasted rava slowly while stirring to remove lumps.

Allow it to cook for a minute and then add the sugar and stir well.

Cover it and simmer it for a couple of minutes.

Heat the ghee and add nuts and raisins and add to the Kesaribath.

Voila! The pineapple is ready to be savoured !

Variation : You can use mashed ripe banana or even chopped apple with fresh grapes instead of pineapple.