By eating pineapple at the start of a new year, you kill two birds with one stone. On the one hand, the fruit brings sunshine into the mind. On the other hand, it is fresh, sweet and sour and rich in vitamins – and therefore exactly the food that your body might want to recover from the supposedly high-calorie festivals and holidays.
For the indigenous peoples of South America, where the pineapple was native a few thousand years ago, it was considered a medicinal product. And we also love them dearly, eat them up as a snack or use them as an ingredient in warm dishes, where we delight in their versatility. The pineapple is good not only for desserts or for juicing. It is also highly recommended for savory dishes, for example this one: lamb curry with pineapple. A fresh, hot and spicy dish that stimulates everything in the body – the perfect culinary start to the year.
You will need: 400 grams rack of lamb, boneless and silverskin, sliced. Two tablespoons of red curry paste. Four tablespoons of fish sauce. 350 milliliters vegetable broth. 400 milliliters coconut milk. 120 grams of onion, finely diced. One red and one green bell pepper, seeded and also diced. 20 grams of ginger, finely chopped. 350 grams of pineapple (equivalent to a standard pineapple), cut into 2 x 2 cm cubes. Two tablespoons of brown sugar. Four tablespoons of olive oil. Juice of two limes. Two sticks of lemongrass. Eight kafir lime leaves (available in Asian stores). And of course: pepper and salt.
Mix the paste with the fish sauce until smooth. Add the onions and marinate the meat in it for two hours. Put the oil in a saucepan and sear the meat over medium heat. Take it out of the pot. Now put the peppers in the pot, add the ginger and sauté together with the brown sugar. Pour in the broth and coconut milk. Flatten the lemongrass on a board so that it shreds. Add and bring everything to a boil. Remove from the stove and leave for 30 minutes. Then remove the lemongrass and lime leaves and add the lamb, pineapple and lime juice. Boil and season with salt and pepper. Substitute vegetables for the lamb and soy sauce for the fish, and you have a perfect vegetarian New Year’s curry.
Walter Stemberg and his son Sascha run the “Haus Stemberg” restaurant in Velbert, whose star in the “Guide Michelin” restaurant guide was confirmed for the ninth year in a row. The Stembergs write about the basics of cooking in WELT AM SONNTAG. All episodes online: www.welt.de/kochschule