Sri Lankan pineapple curry
Pineapple curry is a recent discovery for me. I’d see the recipe in my Sri Lankan cookbooks, but never really thought that fruit in a curry was particularly appealing. How wrong was I? Sri Lankan pineapple curry is bloody fantastic. So quick and easy to cook. Taste? The sweetness of the pineapple marries beautifully with the spices held together with the creamy coconut gravy.
When pineapple was on cocktail stick
I grew up in the 70s when pineapples came out of tins and were served on cocktails sticks with a cube of cheese, or lent their exoticism to a fruit salad. And, a decade later, pineapples were gracing our pizzas. I gave little thought to eating pineapple in a curry.
Paradise Soho changed my mind
I first experienced a pineapple as a savoury dish when I went to eat at Paradise Soho.
Paradise Soho is a modern Sri Lankan restaurant in Soho, serving innovative Sri Lankan food. They take traditional Sri Lankan flavours and with twists and turns create beautiful food – think scallops cooked in kiri hodi, kithul glazed black pork curry, and seaweed butter. You get my gist. It was here I tried pineapple roasted with arrack. Mindblowing.
That convinced me.
Pineapple has a rightful place on your main course plate.
This is a traditional Sri Lankan curry
A pineapple curry is a traditional Sri Lankan curry. It’s usually cooked in a coconut sauce that holds the spice flavours together.
My recipe pulls in flavours from lemongrass, chilli, pandan leaves, curry leaves, cinnamon, and lime.
The recipe is below. Give it a go. I think you will love this!
Try this recipe with my slow cooker chicken curry and a side of cabbage mallung.
Sri Lankan pineapple curry
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Why you need this this Sri Lankan pineapple curry in your life
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Side dish
- Cuisine: Sri Lankan
Ingredients
- 2tbs coconut oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 3 cms strip of pandan leaf
- 1 lemongrass stick, stripped of outer leaves, chopped and bashed
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp of mustard seeds
- A spring of curry leaves – strip the leaves of the stalk
- A red chilli, finely chopped
- A stick of cinnamon (I use a piece about 4cm long)
- ¼ teaspoon of turmeric
- A pineapple, peeled cored, chopped into 3 cm pieces
- Half a can of coconut milk (about 200mls shaken well)
- Juice of a freshly squeezed lime
Instructions
- In a large wok or frying pan heat the oil. Add the onion, pandan leaf and lemongrass, and cook until the onions start to lose their colour.
- Add the cumin and mustard seeds, curry leaves, chilli, cinnamon and turmeric cook for about two minutes, and stir continuously to make sure the spices don’t burn.
- Now add the pineapple. Stir into the spices, again stirring continuously. The pineapple will start to lose its colour, but that’s OK. Cook for around 5 minutes. Let the flavours permeate into the pineapple.
- Now add the coconut milk. Give your curry a gentle stir, the coconut milk will turn golden yellow. Turn the heat down and let your curry cook for another ten minutes.
- It’s ready to serve. This works beautifully with chicken curry or a dry curry like a mallung