Pineapple pickle with detailed photos.

Pineapple pickle recipe is a tasty and spicy Kerala village style Pickle Recipe. This pickle is not only spicy, but also sweet and tangy. If you love pineapples, then you will love this pickle too. So readers, let us learn today, how to make Kerala village style pineapple pickle. I made this post two years back and I forgot to publish it. I have included only the step by step, I will update this post with video as soon as possible.

What is a pickling?

Pickling is a world famous preservative method used to increase the shelf life of vegetable, fruit, seafood or a meat. The product we obtained from pickling is called pickle. The Malayalam word for pickle is achar. While making a pickle, the ingredient which is to be preserved is immersed in preservatives like salt, vinegar, oil or spices. It is then kept in neat and clean air tight containers for years. The ingredients used in the pickling process and the storage methods determine its shelf life and taste.

Pineapple pickle - General information

Pineapple pickle is a Kerala style spicy pickle recipe. Its main ingredient is pineapple, chilies, salt and vinegar. I think, pineapple pickle is not that much popular in India. But trust me, it is really a lip-smacking dish. When we talk about taste, this pickle is spicy, tangy and sweet. The sweetness comes from the pineapple itself, we won't use any other sweetener for this dish.

Pineapple pickle ingredients

We have so many varieties of pickle available today. I don't think pineapple pickle is not that much popular among us. It is the sweet, spicy, tangy pickle. Yes, it is one of the tempting pickle with sweetness and sourness of pineapple and spiciness of chilies.

Pineapple : The main ingredient of pineapple pickle is pineapple itself. Use ripe and sweet pineapple for making the pickle. Ripe pineapple gives the best taste and flavor.

Spices: Ginger, garlic, chilies and curry leaves are the other taste contributors for this dish. Chili powder is also used in this recipe in order to make it hot and bright colored. Asafoetida and fenugreek powder gives the typical Kerala pickle taste.

Preservatives: Salt, vinegar and gingelly oil are used as preservatives. Sometimes, we use a combination of coconut oil and gingelly oil also.

Pineapple pickle - Tips for pickle making and storage

The taste of pineapple pickle depends primarily on the variety of pineapple you choose for the pickle. If you chose a ripe and sweet variety, then the pickle will be more aromatic and sweeter. But unfortunately, the pineapple I used was not that much sweet and so I put some sugar in order to make it sweet. It works, but still I will recommend choose fully ripe pineapples. Of course we can make the pineapple pickle with raw one too, but that taste will be different. It will be slightly sour. I think the sweetness of the pineapple is the hero of this dish.

As we all know, a pickle uses lots of oil. It not only improve the taste, but also ensures longer shelf life of the dish. A pickle is actually a preserving method, so in order to confirm its longer shelf life, we use a large quantities of vinegar, oil, salt, etc. While making the dish, I would like to suggest you to not compromise with any of these three preservatives. A good pickle needs a layer of oil at the top, so that no microbes will intrude in it.

The next thing is, always use clean chopping board, bottles, and knife while making. Most importantly, the bottles, it should be clean and dry. Better to sun dry the bottles after rinsing with hot water. Then tight it nicely or you can put an oily cloth on top before closing the bottle. Also store in dry places or refrigerate.

Pineapple pickle recipe | How to prepare pineapple pickle | How to prepare easy pineapple pickle

An quick and easy pickle with pineapple, chilies and oil.

Preparation time : 15 minutes | Cooking time : 20 minutes | Total time : 35 minutes

Ingredients

1 small pineapple (500 -600 grams)

1 small bulb garlic (20 grams)

1 small piece of ginger (10 grams)

5 -6 green chilies (10 grams)

2 tsp chili powder + 3 tsp Kashmiri chili powder or 3 tbsp chili powder

3/4 tsp fenugreek powder

2 springs of curry leaves

1 tsp mustard seeds

Asafoetida as needed

Salt as needed

1/3 cup coconut oil

1/3 cup gingelly oil

Vinegar as needed

Direction of preparation of pineapple pickle

Make all the ingredients ready before you start cooking. This is an instant pickle, so you won't get time to prepare, once cooking started.

Remove the stem, leaves, and skin of pineapple and chop into small pieces as shown in the picture.

Wash, clean and then chop a 1" piece ginger into small pieces.

Deskin, wash and dry one small bulb of garlic and keep aside.

Next is green chilies, wash, dry and chop into small pieces and keep aside.

Heat a Kadai on medium flame and put 1/4 cup coconut oil.
Then 1/4 cup gingelly oil. You can avoid coconut oil and can use gingelly oil instead that.
Put mustard seeds and wait till it crackle. The oil will bubble a bit, don't worry, its natural.
Once the crackling is over, you can put chopped ginger, garlic, green chilies and curry leaves. Give a nice stir and continue to cook on medium flame, once it completely cooked then start releasing a nice roasting aroma.
Next, you can put the chili power, I have used both normal chili powder and Kashmiri chili powder. At this stage, the chances of burning is high, so switch off the flame and then add the chili powder and mix immediately. (Otherwise, you can put a 1/4 cup of boiled and cooled water, to avoid burning.)
Mix immediately and stir for one or two seconds till the raw smell vanishes.
Once you get a roasting smell of chilies, put chopped pineapple into the kadai immediately and mix well. This also will help to prevent burning.
Then put 3/4 to 1 tsp fenugreek powder, asafoetida powder salt and sugar as needed. The use of sugar will balance the entire taste of the dish. If you are using a sweet pineapple, then you can omit it.
Mix everything well and continue to cook on medium flame till the pineapple turn soft and oil starts to release. Once the oil start releasing, you can switch off the stove. Then pour one or two teaspoons of vinegar and mix well. This is optional, if your pineapple is sour enough, then you can decrease its amount.
The pineapple pickle is now ready, allow it to cool down, do not close the with a tight lid, instead you can use a clean dry cloth so as to prevent precipitation of moisture. Let it cool down completely, then transfer to a clean and dry container.