Pineapple Menaskai | Ananas Menaskai | How to make Pineapple Gojju

 
Pineapple Menaskai or Ananas Menaskai is a classic dish from Udupi Cuisine. This tangy, spicy curry is made with Pineapples, basic spices simmered in a coconut gravy. 

 A classic Kannada dish, Pineapple Gojju aka Pineapple Menaskai is a slurpy tangy curry and is a standard fare in weddings across South Karnataka especially. As kids, we used to look forward to invites to weddings / functions where this would be served 🙂 In Tamil, gojju is called 'gothsu', but  I was wondering what the 'english' equivalent would be - may be a tangy sauce 🙂

Difference between the Mysore and the Udupi variants of Gojju

The coastal city of Udupi also makes a Gojju (which in local parlance is called MeNaskai -here, MeNas means chillies and kai meaning coconut) and the spice mixture is ground to add to the sauteed veggies. The Mysore version however, uses tamarind water along with dry spices to spice this curry, like the Bendekayi Gojju

The latter version keeps for longer (upto 8 hours without refrigeration), but the coconut version would need to be consumed within a few hours. Although both dishes keep for under 3-4 days under refrigeration.

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This is a super quick and tasty curry to put together, especially in the summer season when this fruit is available in plenty. Do ensure you ensure sweet pineapple to get best results. If using canned fruit (which I quite don't prefer), ensure you drain out the extra syrup from the chunks. This curry goes well with chapathi, but can be also mixed with plain steamed rice and tastes heavenly with chilled yoghurt rice (mosaranna in Kannada). Slurp ! 

Preparation time: 10 mins. Cooking time: 10 mins. Serves : 4

Cuisine - Karnataka ; Course - Side dish / accompaniment

Ingredients to make Pineapple Menaskai / Ananas Menaskai 

• 1 cup Pineapple Chunks (1-inch cubes)
• Tamarind - 1 lemon sized
• Jaggery grated - 2 tbsp
• Salt - to taste
• Turmeric - ½ tsp
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves - few

Masala Powder:

• Fenugreek seeds - ½ tsp
• Raw rice - ¼ tsp
• Dhaniya / dry coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
• Red chillies - 2
• Kashmiri chilli - 1 no
• Urad dal - 1 tsp
• Channa dal - ½ tsp
• Hing / Asafoetida - 1 tsp
• Dry grated coconut - 2 tbsp

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Method:

1) Boil the pineapple chunks in 1 cup of water and turmeric for about 5 - 6 mins. Cool.

2) Soak the tamarind in ½ cup warm water and extract the juice. If using tamarind extract, the required quantity is about 1 tbsp.

3) Meanwhile roast all the masala powder ingredients separately, one by one , in about 1 tablespoon oil. Cool and powder into a fine powder.

4) In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil. Splutter mustard and curry leaves. Add tamarind extract, boiled pineapple chunks (along with the water). Add salt.

5) When it comes to low boil, add the masala powder and stir well. Add grated jaggery at this stage. Cover and simmer on medium heat till you get the required consistency (pulikachal / pizza sauce consistency).

6) Check and adjust seasonings (spice / salt / jaggery ) according to taste.

7) Serve with curd rice / chapathi / plain steamed rice.

Tips:

1) Do use ripe sweet pineapples only for this.

2) The masala powder may be made in larger quantities and refrigerated to be used as and when required for the gojju.

3) If you are pressed for time, use a combo of ½ teaspoon of chilli powder + 2 teaspoon of Rasam powder instead of the masala powder. However, the proportion of other spices will need to be adjusted proportionately (esp. jaggery / tamarind)

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