Curry Green Onion and Curry Pineapple

Photos Courtesy of Brad Lovejoy

Tonight I decided to tap into my Grammie's vast cooking knowledge and enormous library of gourmet recipes. To say that my grandma has a large cookbook collection is a gross understatement. Let's just say she is the only person I know with a built-in bookcase that stretches across an entire wall and is used exclusively to house cookbooks. She would need to comment on the exact cookbook quantity but I am telling you, if you are looking for a type of cuisine, a particular recipe or you want to learn about the cooking in a specific region of a specific country, my Grammie's library is the place to go.

In addition, I can't even begin to list all of the countries she has lived in and/or visited. With her extreme interest in cooking and her raw talent, she has been able to learn to prepare cuisines from all over the world. This leads me to my point which is that she shared two curry recipes with me. She originally learned both dishes from one of her friends while living in Sri Lanka. I chose both recipes to prepare for tonight's dinner.

The first dish I prepared is Curry Green Onion and the second dish is Curry Pineapple. My Grammie also sent a formula for making my own curry powder but I will save that for another time. For tonight's recipes, I used curry powder that I already had on hand. Before I make further comment on the recipes, I will provide them for review.

Curry Green Onion-

Ingredients:

1 bunch green onions

2 medium tomatoes, sliced thinly lengthwise

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp chile powder

2 tsp butter

salt to taste

Mix all ingredients in saucepan and allow to cook over low heat until cooked down; well done. Serve as side dish or with Naan bread.

Curry Pineapple-

Ingredients:

1 20-ounce can pineapple chunks, drained

1/4 onion, chopped

1/2 tsp chopped garlic

small amount of chopped ginger (approximately size of a quarter)

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp curry powder

1 cinnamon stick broken in half

about 3 Tbsp cooking oil (I used Canola)

1-2 tsp sugar

Mix all ingredients in saucepan and add about 3 tablespoons of oil. Simmer until onions and garlic are soft and pineapple is coated. When cooked, stir in sugar and serve.

The consensus is in. Both recipes were delicious! I especially liked the Curry Green Onion dish because I love tomatoes and I tend to prefer savory dishes to sweet dishes (unless we are talking dessert, of course). The green onions paired nicely with the tomatoes and the addition of butter to provide creaminess worked beautifully. I would not change anything about this recipe.

The Curry Pineapple dish was delicious as well but I found myself wishing there was a bit less oil. I would reduce the amount of oil to 1 or 1 1/2 tablespoons, which would change the consistency a bit but I believe it would be more to my liking. What did work well in this recipe however, is the combination of cinnamon, curry, chili powder and ginger. The flavor profile was tasty and definitely up my alley. I served both dishes with All-Natural, Hand-Stretched Tandoori Naan by a company called Stonefire Authentic Flatbreads. I served the Curry Green Onion with Garlic Naan and the Curry Pineapple with Original Naan. Thank you Grammie, for inspiring such a lovely dinner!

Recipe Source:

Mary Moore (a.k.a. Grammie extraordinaire)