Anas sa che Sasav or Pineapple Sweet and Pungent Vegetable

Pineapple Sasav

I love Goan Food. My perception of food here has changed over the last so many years. I used to always associate Goan food with fish and chicken that is predominantly eaten by both the Hindu's and the Catholics, of course the latter eat beef and pork too. Somehow I never associated Goan food with vegetables, maybe because I always ate Goan food at parties or at restaurants.



But Goans have quite a few vegetables typical to Goa. There are of course the well known fiery Tonak made of different beans like alsande(cow chick peas), masoor(lentil), vatane(dried peas), mushrooms, akur which are tender shoots. There mild dishes like uda-methi made from sour bimbla((Averrhoa bilimbi (commonly known as bilimbi,cucumber tree, or tree sorrel), amado(hog plum) . One such dish is sasav made from again amado and pineapple.

Yesterday I made one of these Anas sa che sasav. Anas is pineapple.

To make this vegetable you will need
1 cup chopped pineapple, fresh please remove the hard core from inside
1 cup coconut, again freshly grated
1 tblspn red chilli powder (adjust as per taste)
¼ tsp haldi/turmeric
Tamarind
Jaggery
Hing/asafoetida
And of course the star sasava that is mustard about ½ tsp
½ tsp Oil
Salt

Anasa che Sasav

Method:
1. Taste the pineapple. Is it sour? If yes use more jaggery if sweet use more tamarind. The idea is a sweet sour mix.
2. Grind to a coarse paste the coconut, red chilli powder, haldi/turmeric, if you need to use the tamarind.
3. Heat the oil and splutter the mustard and hing/asafoetida.
4. Add the pineapple pieces. Cook the pineapple using water if needed.
5. When the pineapple is cooked add the ground paste and salt and jaggery.
6. Taste the mixture and adjust the seasonings.
7. Enjoy with chapatti or rice.