I discovered this dish as part of a thali in a town called Munnar in the Kerelan highlands. Sveta and I spent a few days there one January. We did a lot of hiking in the area, through tea and spice plantations and along shady river valleys. One day we stopped at the New Woodlands Vegetarian Restaurant for lunch. There was no menu - only a set lunch for fifteen rupees. Set lunches, or 'ready meals' as they are usually called, can be really good or really bad. We weren't very optimistic. Fifteen rupees is very cheap and we expected a thali of fairly limited and boring ingredients. What we actually got was an extremely well cooked and interesting combination of dishes served with excellent large-grained Kerelan rice. Whenever we emptied any of the little dishes, the waiter came with a refill until we told him to stop.
The rest of the thali ingredients are scattered about the cookbook, but I've linked them up at the bottom of the page.
Ingredients
Half of a fresh pineapple or a small tin of pineapple chunks.
1/2 tsp. of whole mustard seeds
1/3 tsp. each of turmeric and chilli powder
2 cups of coconut milk
A splash of vegetable oil
Salt
If you're using fresh pineapple, peel the fruit and slice it into rings about a centimetre thick. You'll notice the centre of each slice is lighter than the rest of the fruit. It's also tougher and less tasty, so the thing to do is cut it out and throw it away. Chop what's left into chunks. If you use tinned pineapple, drain off the juice or syrup before doing the recipe.
Heat a very small quantity of oil in a pan and fry the mustard seeds for a few seconds. Toss in the pineapple chunks and stir. Add the coconut milk, turmeric, chilli and salt and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about ten minutes.
To make the full Kerelan mountain thali, serve with rice, puris, quick fried okra and chilli and ginger raita.