Pineapple Recipes Meet Their Savoury Form In This

No-Oil Pickle

Recipe

Pineapple recipes almost always sit on the sweet side of food, starting from being used in fruit salads, juices, and upside-down cakes. This no oil pickle breaks that trend, turning a juicy pineapple into a tangy, sweet and spicy Gujarati-style achar. This pickle only needs ordinary kitchen spices and it's ready to start eating the day after you make it. Instead of using the usual pickling routine of salting, drying in the sun and covering with hot oil, this one uses a spiced brine. Water is boiled with sugar, salt and black salt, along with whole spices. Then it's left to cool completely before it meets the fruit. The flavour of this no oil pickle recipe is quite layered, and is a mix of sour, sweet, spicy and aromatic. The pineapple is what contributes to the sweet-sour taste, black salt adds a savoury tanginess, and the whole spices add nice warmth and fragrance. Green and red chillies are slit lengthwise but left uncut at the ends, so they stay whole in the jar and flavour the brine without breaking up. It is the chillies that help balance the pickle's sourness and sweetness. The pickle’s brine has to cool completely before it goes into the jar, and this step cannot be rushed, because hot liquid would start to cook the fruit instead of pickling it. While it cools, wash and peel the pineapple, cut it into long pieces and pack them into a clean glass jar along with the slit chillies. Then pour the cooled, spiced brine over the fruit, close the lid and leave it for at least a day so the pickle can set. You can start eating it the next day.