Last night, Martin made pineapple curry.
Perhaps you think of fruit exclusively as dessert. (Personally, I think of fruit as irrelevant, because I’m a small carnivore with a short digestive tract and vegetable matter has never held much allure for my species.) In fact pineapple and other fruit curries regularly feature on the dining tables of Southern India and Sri Lanka (if they have dining tables there. They may just eat from bowls on the floor, like I do.) Of course, meals in South Asia often consist of many small helpings of different dishes, and I doubt whether anybody ever sits down to a massive plate of pineapple curry and chips.
M told me curried fruit reminded him of his earliest exposure to ‘Indian’ food when he was little. His mum would make something called ‘curry’ with left-over roast chicken and raisins in peppery gravy, serving it in the centre of a ring of boiled rice. His dad, who was terrified of the slightest piquancy and believed in fruit as defence, would go through an elaborate ritual of peeling and slicing bananas and apples at the table as he waited for his dinner. He’d be wiping beads of sweat from his brow before the dish even made it through the serving hatch, and as soon as the stuff was before him, he’d throw his sliced fruit over it, take a timid mouthful and make exaggerated exclamations of the "pheewwhatascorcha" variety.
How times have changed. Hardly anybody has a hatch these days.
Perhaps you think of fruit exclusively as dessert. (Personally, I think of fruit as irrelevant, because I’m a small carnivore with a short digestive tract and vegetable matter has never held much allure for my species.) In fact pineapple and other fruit curries regularly feature on the dining tables of Southern India and Sri Lanka (if they have dining tables there. They may just eat from bowls on the floor, like I do.) Of course, meals in South Asia often consist of many small helpings of different dishes, and I doubt whether anybody ever sits down to a massive plate of pineapple curry and chips.
M told me curried fruit reminded him of his earliest exposure to ‘Indian’ food when he was little. His mum would make something called ‘curry’ with left-over roast chicken and raisins in peppery gravy, serving it in the centre of a ring of boiled rice. His dad, who was terrified of the slightest piquancy and believed in fruit as defence, would go through an elaborate ritual of peeling and slicing bananas and apples at the table as he waited for his dinner. He’d be wiping beads of sweat from his brow before the dish even made it through the serving hatch, and as soon as the stuff was before him, he’d throw his sliced fruit over it, take a timid mouthful and make exaggerated exclamations of the "pheewwhatascorcha" variety.
How times have changed. Hardly anybody has a hatch these days.
Pineapple curry
1 medium pineapple
1 small onion, chopped
6 curry leaves
½ tsp each chilli powder, turmeric, mustard seeds, fennel seeds
About 20mls coconut milk
Oil, salt
Peel the pineapple and slice it into rings. Remove the core if it’s tough and woody. Cut the rings into chunks.
Fry the onion in hot oil until transparent, add the curry leaves and the mustard seeds until the latter start to pop, add the pineapple, chilli powder and turmeric and stir-fry for a few minutes. Now add the coconut milk and taste. Add required salt and simmer for about five minutes, depending on how hard the pineapple is. Add the fennel seeds and let the curry bubble away for another minute or two. It’s ready. You might want to strew a few sliced fresh chillies and some coriander leaves over the top.
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