PINEAPPLE JAM WITH CHILLI FLAKES

The entire island is in a holiday mood right from today till Monday! Post afternoon most of the shops will get closed, people will just go out in flocks and indulge in Merry making.... The environment is similar to a Durga Puja or Christmas or an Eid celebration. Though we are not in to the mainstream of the island, the merriment touches our hearts too! As I or my man always say, whichever place we live in, is our home. When I travel to Kolkata, I am definitely happy but after three weeks I long to be back here... not for the high speed internet or the other comforts it provides us but because it is my home now.  I indeed called my mom more frequently last December to get our Kolkata home cleaned since I could not go this time ..... The senior corrects me saying that this 1150 sq.ft., rented space is your home now. Our family members reading this post may get sad, but the truth is that we thoroughly enjoy our stay here.   One cannot stay at one place and go gaga about another place all the time. One must have a sense of belonging to the place he or she lives in. 

Let me give an example of how I adjust here.... It is been quite sometime I do not enjoy having chicken here except for some particular oriental preparations or some minced meat in tikka or kebab or say cutlet! While in India, I still can have one or two bony pieces from the curry! I did not lament over it and started trying and testing about what is going wrong. Finally realised..... it is the "Kampong" variety of chicken that matches my taste bud here.... though mutton remains a favourite. If we compare all the time we cannot feel that belongingness. To use a place just as a source of earning dollars is wrong.... I feel before going elsewhere or back, we must need to show some love to the place we are in . If it is a CNY celebration here, we will very much be a part of it and enjoy sharing a recipe of PINEAPPLE JAM WITH CHILLI FLAKES with my readers. Any festival is enjoyed with a sweet something, thats what we believe.

My readers believe it or not, both of us siblings grew up on jams made at home. Our mother did not know how to bake cakes or pastries or pies.... her expertise revolves around Bengali cooking that she inherited from her mother. The only "foreign" thing she used to make was mango, pineapple and guava jam. She had / has a daughter with a giant sized stomach which once could digest anything and everything. In those days, such terms like "body shaming" and all were not much there.... not at all among friends. I cannot recall that my friends had ever called me a fatso.... hence I kept on eating! What does it say of my nature?.... that I prioritised food more than the attention of a boy or may be I put across a message.... accept me the way I am if you can or quit. What is wrong in the way I thought? Well, "body shaming" is wrong but there is no pride in being obese and invite all sorts of diseases at an early age. The garland of diseases I wear today is all because of the wrong food habits. Not that I turned into a wise person but I try to balance my diet a bit. 

This morning I packed the husband's lunch box with some leftover chicken kofta curry and paratha.... it cannot happen that I will not have one paratha with my morning tea. What will be my lunch like?... Some stir fry mushrooms & veggies with no rice at all.... some fruits to have too! Dinner may be 1/2 small cup of rice.... This is not an ideal diet plan... so I could manage to shed only 10-12 kilos in the past few years and look just like myself instead of a Shobha De .... I am just unable to go for clean eating and rigorous physical training. At times, the trainers at the gym knocks me asking are you ok S? I might have lost then somewhere else in between workout sessions.... It is my nature... may be early signs of dementia too... who knows? No I do not eat breads with this PINEAPPLE JAM WITH CHILLI FLAKES often, neither did I follow our mother's recipe of it . She might have forgotten the recipes of jams altogether. She stopped cooking variety once I got married because the brother never fancied variety in his food. She cooks what he loves... biryani, pulao, meat.... after a lunch with these he can enter a KFC for a giant chicken leg, Pizza Hut for a pizza! 

The junior at this home indeed loves all the simple spreads and jams I prepare.... just like his mother used to some 30-40 years back on cream cracker and marie biscuits... 10-15 per day.... paying for it hard now. A diabetic foodie is the worst combination to happen in this world. I am still not clear about the difference between spread, jam and jelly..... I have to do some research! I just do a jam like something with fresh fruits and with few other ingredients readily available at home. I do not use any kind of artificial preservatives on jams given my shallow knowledge about food. So... if you call my PINEAPPLE JAM WITH CHILLI FLAKES .... anarosher mishti achar... I do not mind.... it still tastes great! 

I stick to the idea of adding chilli flakes to jams deriving it from one of the jam recipe of scratchingcanvas.com ... it rocks! Those who are celebrating CNY can try it after the celebration, rest of you can try it tomorrow itself... what you need is a good quality, juicy... ripe pineapple.... with which I have a long association... the grandfather grew it... not that sweet as we get here. The mother spoilt her kids serving it cubed, tossed in black salt and pepper on weekends post lunch when the lazy daughter was engrossed in a story book and the naughty son was on an experimentation mode inserting a "kuler bichi" .... an Indian berry seed inside his nose! Enjoy this PINEAPPLE JAM WITH CHILLI FLAKES on biscuit, bread, poori, paratha / porota. The first item that went into the lunch box of the junior were two tiny luchi rolled with jam spread on it... it should work at your home too!

INGREDIENT :

Pineapple : 1standard size
Lemon Juice : 1/2small cup
Dry Red Chilli : 2-3
Sugar : 1/2 small tea cup [you can use more]
Water : 11/2coffee mug

METHOD :

Cut the two ends of the pineapple, peel the skin. Cut half and then further into 4 pieces. We will discard the hard pineapple core / woody centre too.

Now cut the remaining pineapple into cubes and grind to a coarse paste. Use a grinder and not a juicer. I added the sugar at this stage not wanting to crush the cubes, then changed my mind!

Take the pineapple paste on a heavy bottomed vessel and add 1/2 coffee mug of water to it.

Put on the gas stove and bring to boil. Let boil for about 10-12 minutes. You will add the sugar & stir at this stage actually!

When it has boiled for about 12-15 minutes, add the lemon juice & the dry red chilli flakes you have prepared earlier; stir.

Once you see the boiling mixture getting sticky, switch off the gas stove.

Once cool, transfer to a sterilised bottle. Refrigerate for it's longevity and enjoy atop bread, poori, paratha as and when required!