Pineapple Chutney
Wash, peel and slice a medium-sized fresh pineapple into two haves, and remove the center hard part of it. Next, chop off the pineapple as required. I have used half of the pineapple to prepare the chutney. Now boil these pineapple pieces into a sufficient water and sugar mixture until they turn soft and tender. Using a potato smasher crush these cooked pineapple pieces. Continue to cook on slow to medium heat and in between continue to crush and smash these until the bigger chunks turn out into smaller chunks and the water reduces by less than a half. Make sure to leave some water at the end because we need to cook these further sometimes in a tempting tadka, special Bengali style. So once it is completely cooked and looks tempting, turn off the flame and keep it aside until you prepare tadka.To prepare tadka heat some oil in a frying pan. Add some cumin seeds (shahi jeera) along with some black cumin seeds, and let these splutter, then add a few green cardamoms, 2 dry red chilis, some broken cashews, a few raisins, and some seedless dates chopped. Stir and saute these for a few seconds and then keeping the flame at the lowest pour the cooked pineapples carefully into it and mix. In between add a pinch of salt because this enhances the taste and balances the overall flavor of the chutney. Continue to cook until the leftover water evaporates and the mixture gets thicker. At this point, it releases a very nice chutney aroma and looks tempting. It goes really great with any of the vegetarian traditional dishes such as a sider and steamed or parboiled rice.
Ingredients
- 3 to 4 cups Pineapples chopped
- 5 to 6 cups Water or as required to boil until soft and tender
- 3/4 cup Sugar
For Tadka
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds (shahi jeera)
- 1/2 teaspoon Black cumin seeds
- 5 to 6 Green cardamoms (whole)
- 2 Dry-red chili's
- 2 tablespoon Raisins
- 2 tablespoons Cashews
- 2 tablespoons Dates (seedless and chopped)
- Pinch of salt