R081Moru Curry
Tempered buttermilk curry with ground coconut
Recipes › Curries, Pulissery and the Sour Family
R082
Pineapple Pulissery
Sweet-sour curd curry with pineapple
Photograph: Adobe Stock · representative of the dish
The re-engineeringJaggery cut to 8 g across four portions, because ripe pineapple supplies most of the sweetness the dish needs, and the coconut held at 60 g where a sadya version would use twice that.
Pulissery is the curd family's showpiece, and the pineapple version is the one that converts people. It sits in the sweet-sour register the sadya reserves for the closing rice courses — a fruit cooked to softness, a curd-and-coconut body, mustard and curry leaf on top — and the tension between the acid of the curd and the acid of the fruit is the whole dish. Get the pineapple ripe. An underripe one gives sharpness without perfume, and no amount of jaggery corrects it.
Before you start: Cook the pineapple first and let it cool for a few minutes before the curd goes anywhere near it. Adding whisked curd to fruit still at a boil is the commonest way this dish is ruined.
Pineapple Pulissery
Active 15 minutes Total 30 minutes
Scale
4 servings
Ingredients — tap to tick off
- ✓300 g (about ½ a small one) ripe pineapple, in 1.5 cm dice
- ✓150 ml water
- ✓1.5 g (¾ tsp) ground turmeric
- ✓8 g (2 tsp) jaggery, grated
- ✓60 g (¾ cup) freshly grated coconut
- ✓1.5 g (½ tsp) cumin seed
- ✓10 g (about 2) green chillies
- ✓250 g (1 cup) thick curd, whisked smooth
- ✓2 g (⅓ tsp) M07 the 70:30 salt
- ✓5 g (1 tsp) coconut oil
- ✓1.5 g (⅓ tsp) mustard seed
- ✓0.5 g (⅛ tsp) fenugreek seed
- ✓2 dried red chillies, broken
- ✓3 g (1 sprig) curry leaves
Allergens: Milk, mustard.
Equipment: Heavy 2-litre pan; mixie; small pan for the tempering. Substitute: as R081.
Per serving (estimated)
| Energy | 164 kcal |
| Protein | 3.5 g |
| Fibre | 3.0 g |
| Net carbohydrate | 15.4 g |
| Total carbohydrate | 18.4 g |
| Sugars | 13.1 g |
| Fat | 9.9 g |
| Saturated fat | 7.9 g |
| Sodium | 170 mg |
From ICMR-NIN IFCT 2017 and USDA FoodData Central. Per-serving figures stay the same when you scale.
Method — tap a step to mark it done, tap a time to start a timer
- Simmer the pineapple with the water, turmeric and jaggery in the pan, covered, over a medium flame until the fruit is translucent at the edges and yields easily to a spoon but still holds its shape, depending on ripeness. Most of the water should have gone; if a lot remains, uncover and boil it down for .
- Grind the coconut, cumin and green chilli with 60 ml water to a fine paste, in bursts, until no grit remains on a fingertip.
- Stir the paste into the pineapple and cook, uncovered, over a low flame for , until the raw coconut smell has gone and the mixture has thickened noticeably. Then take the pan off the heat and let it stand .
- Whisk the curd smooth. Add it to the pan off the heat, with the salt, stirring slowly until evenly combined.
- Return to the very lowest flame and warm, stirring continuously, until hot to a fingertip and faintly steaming, . Not one bubble. Take it off at the first sign that the surface is about to move.
- Temper exactly as in R081: coconut oil hot enough to pop a mustard seed in 2 seconds, mustard seeds covered until they finish popping, then fenugreek and broken chilli for 10–15 seconds, then curry leaves for 10–15 seconds.
- Pour the tempering over the surface and leave it there. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Why this worksCooking the pineapple first solves a specific problem: raw pineapple contains bromelain, a protease that would cleave the curd's casein and turn the curry bitter and thin. Eight minutes at a simmer denatures it completely. The ground coconut then thickens by suspension rather than by protein, which is what lets the dish be warmed at all without splitting.
Sourcing note
Kerala pineapple — the Vazhakulam variety from Ernakulam district — is smaller, sweeter and less fibrous than the tinned kind, and is a registered geographical indication. Outside Kerala, buy a fresh pineapple that smells of pineapple at the base and gives slightly under a thumb at the crown. Tinned pineapple in juice is an acceptable substitute at 300 g drained; tinned in syrup is not, and if it is all you have, rinse it and leave the jaggery out. Jaggery is in every South Asian shop; dark muscovado sugar at the same weight is the closest supermarket substitute.
If you are watching…
Blood sugar: 15.4 g of net carbohydrate and 13.1 g of sugars a portion, and that is the highest sugar figure in this chapter. About 9 g of it is the pineapple's own fructose and glucose, about 2 g the jaggery, about 3 g the lactose. Leave the jaggery out — the dish survives it if the fruit is ripe — and you are at about 11 g of sugars. Eat it as one dish on a plate, not as a bowl on its own.
Blood pressure: 170 mg a portion, which is low, and the fruit acid is carrying most of the seasoning.
Cholesterol: 7.9 g of saturated fat a portion, from 60 g of grated coconut and a teaspoon of coconut oil for four. Cut the coconut to 40 g for about 6.3 g, at real cost to the body of the curry. This dish needs some of its coconut and it is not honest to pretend otherwise.
Swap it
Pineapple → 300 g ripe mango, which gives R085. Sweeter, softer, less acidic, and no bromelain problem.
Pineapple → 300 g ripe nendran banana in thick coins, simmered 5–6 minutes only. Sugars rise to about 17 g a portion; a very traditional sadya version.
Jaggery → nothing. If the pineapple is genuinely ripe you will not miss it, and you lose 2 g of sugars a portion.
Curd → 250 g coconut yoghurt, for a dairy-free version. It behaves similarly, does not split as readily, and saturated fat rises by about 1.5 g a portion.
Make ahead · store · freeze
The cooked pineapple base with the coconut paste — everything up to the end of step 3 — keeps in the fridge for 2 days and the curd goes in on the day. Fridge 2 days for the finished curry, covered, in a non-metal container. Do not freeze; the curd splits and the pineapple goes woolly. Reheat to barely warm over the lowest flame, or serve at room temperature.
Leftovers
Spoon it cold over R015 as a kind of Kerala rice salad, or fold a few tablespoons through plain curd for a pachadi-style side.
Troubleshooting
Bitter and thin: the pineapple was not cooked long enough before the curd went in, and its bromelain has cleaved the milk protein. Eight minutes minimum, and take it off the heat before the curd.
Split: it boiled after the curd went in. Never above a fingertip's warmth.
Cloyingly sweet: the jaggery was measured by eye, or the pineapple was very ripe. Add a teaspoon of lime juice off the heat; acid is the corrective for sweetness, not salt.
Watery: the pineapple's liquid was not reduced at step 1. Boil it down before the coconut paste goes in.
Serve with
R015 Matta Rice, Properly Cooked · R086 Rasam · R084 Ulli Theeyal · a thoran from Chapter 21
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