Pineapple Gojju ( Pineapple Cooked in a Spicy Coconut Sauce)

Pineapple gojju is one of the traditional South India recipe served most commonly during marriage functions or festivals. "Gojju" is the term used in South Indian language "Kannada" for a gravy/curry. This gojju is basically nothing but chopped pineapple cooked in a spicy coconut sauce. This recipe goes well with both sweet pineapple and the tangy one. If you're using a sweet one, then you'll need to add more tamarind and if you're using a tangy one, you'll be using less tamarind. You just need to alter the tamarind, palm sugar and salt quantities accordingly.


Its got the tang, sweet, salt and spicy flavors to bring out all together a new delicious flavor. Its a must try recipe!


Ingredients:

1 pineapple , peel and chop into 1 inch cubes, or the canned pineapples
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tbsps Urad dal or Black gram
8-10 Byadgi red chillies
1" cinnamon
1 tbsp Poppy seeds
1/2 cup dessicated coconut powder or freshly grated dry coconut
3-4 tbsp jaggery or palm sugar
2 tbsp thick tamarind pulp
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Directions:

Heat the oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and let it splutter, then add the chopped pineapple and enough water to cover the pineapple. Do not add more water. Cover and cook at low to medium heat and let it boil for few minutes till the pineapple become slightly soft.

Meanwhile, fry the masala ingredients, i.e., urad dal, red chillies (broken), coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and cinnamon. When urad dal starts turning golden brown, switch off the heat and add the poppy seeds. You add poppy seeds at the end as it doesn't require to be fried for a longer time. Just the heat which is in the pan is good enough.

Cool the masala ingredients and grind it along with the desiccated coconut adding as much water required to form a thick smooth fine paste.

Now add the ground masala paste, along with tamarind juice, jaggery and salt to the pineapple. Bring it to boil. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until the curry thickens. If the curry becomes too thick, you can add water and bring it to the curry consistency. You can taste the curry and adjust the tamarind, jaggery and salt quantities.. As these 3 ingredients play a major role in getting the tongue tickling taste.

Serve with any of the Indian flat breads recipes in my blog, or with plain steamed rice. Enjoy!

Variation: You can follow the recipe with any other tangy fruit like grapes, or any other berries. Just make sure you dont boil the fruits too much and let them hold there shape. Its nice when you get bits of these fruits when eating.