Pineapple Pacchadi

Indian meals is all about the paraphernalia I mean the pickles, raitas, tokku, chutneys, pacchadis, papads and assorted fried nibbles like Sandige, Balaka etc. Even though the modern times have taken a lot of things away from us, we still are diligently making pickles and tokkus and papads. Women still wake up at unearthly hours be able to cook delicious meals complete with all the paraphernalia, men help out women in the kitchen on days calling for elaborate meals and the whole family comes together to make the annual papad and pickle making  ritual. A lot of us are getting help from super markets and sometimes lucky folks find people to make these for them. I end up making all the pickles, tokkus and chutneys at home but papad or 'Happala', not my department. I have been asking mom for the recipe but she does not bother giving me one because she knows right now I will not be able to make them with Sunny boy all over the place.

For this season it is lemon-bitter gourd pickle and mango pickle and then mango tokku with the leftover parts of raw mango.

Pacchadi is loose term which assumes a definition depending on where the recipe hails from. In Karnataka it is salad dressed with spices and generous amounts of yogurt, in Andhra it is a sort of  quick-fix pickles with oodles of spices and oil, in Tamil nadu and Kerala it is somewhere in between, might be spicy. Here is a recipe for Pineapple Pacchadi which is a version of the pineapple pacchadi by Priya Sreeram. Loved the original recipe and when Radhika paired me with Priya for the bloghop, I got to my favorite very easily.As always I tweaked this recipe a bit to work it bit faster. Substituted canned pineapples for fresh ones and coconut milk for fresh coconut. Thanks for the wonderful recipe Priya.

We will need,

Pinapple  1- 8 oz can chopped

Coconut milk  3 tbsp

Mustard seeds 1/4 +1/4 tsp

Turmeric a generous pinch

Jeera 1/2 tsp

Peanut oil 2 tsp

Green chillies 3 slit length wise

Curry leaves a handful

Yogurt 1/2 cup

Salt to taste

Method:

• In a mortar pestle, crush the 1/4 tsp of  mustard seeds and Jeera into a coarse powder. Set it aside.
• Place the coconut milk with half a cup of water in a thick bottom saucepan and heat it gently. Throw in the turmeric, a  generous pinch of salt, pineapple bits (reserve the juice for another use) and one green chilli. Bring it to a gentle boil.
• Throw in the crushed spices and cook for a few more minutes till the spices are fragrant and the pineapple are tender. Remove from heat and set it aside to cool.
• Prepare the oggarane or tadka. Heat oil in a small pan, throw in the remaining mustard seeds, green chillies and curry leaves. Once it stops crackling which is a matter of seconds, remove from heat and pour over the pineapple mixture.
• Once the pineapple mixture is cool, stir in the beaten  yogurt and adjust salt. Serve it at room temperature. 

Sending it to Bloghop 18