Pineapple Kesari Bhath

My earliest memory of eating pineapple kesari was around when i was 10. Our neighbour and my amma's good friend is kannadiga madhwa. Aunty is very religious and would often send over the prasad for us..actually for me to eat, as she was aware that i loved this kesari and her cucumber kosambri. Well, i was not happy to wait for aunty to make and send and would as usual whine about how i never get to eat what i like and all that bakwaas rona-dhona...Well, one day when i came back from school amma had made this for tiffin and boy was i thrilled.

I actually had a deep fried snack planned to RCI - Karnataka..but after frying the last bread batch up..my courage failed me...and Jeeves (my husband) has been asking everyday...kuch meetha hai kya?? and just the other day when he wanted to eat my stash of pineapple i told him to move away (i know..i am a meanie ;)..so i thought this is the best option for RCI and for fixing Jeeves sweet and pineapple fix ;) boy! i am smart

This is off to Asha of Foodie's Hope who is a total sweetheart and is hosting RCI - Karnataka

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

Rava: 1 cup
Sugar: 2 cups
Water: 2 1/2 cups
Pineapple: 1 cup (finely diced - do not use the core)
Ghee: 1 1/2 tbls
Almonds: 10 (broken in bits)
Raisins: 2 tbls
Saffron : a generous pinch

Method:

1. Boil water in a kettle and keep it hot to make the kesari.

2. In a pan, put 1 tbls of ghee, fry the almonds and raisins till the raisins are plumped and keep aside.

3. To the same pan, add the rava and fry till fragrant,remove and keep aside.

4. Again in the above pan, add the pineapple, 1/2 cup of sugar (from the 2 cups), 1/4 cup of water (not from the 2 1/2 cups) and cook the pineapple in medium flame till soft and all the water has evaporated.

5. Add the rava to the pineapple and mix well, and gently add the water while stirring the rava-pineapple mix.

6. Reduce the heat to medium low, add the nuts and raisins, 1/2 tbls of ghee,
1 1/2 cups of sugar,saffron and mix well. Switch off the gas and eat it hot or cold.

Notes:

1. You can definately reduce the sugar to 1 1/2 cups..it was quite sweet actually.

2. I personally prefer adding rawa to boiling water and not vice-versa...but for this kesari it is not possible...i did land up with a few lumps :( which i very lovingly transferred to jeeves bowl ;) ha ha

3. You can make the same kesari with bananas too.....