2020-04-02
Pineapple berbere salsa
A condiment or salad, delicious immediately and even better after a few hours in the fridge.
- Fresh pineapple
- Salt
- Berbere seasoning
- Onion or shallot
- Cilantro (leaves)
- Fresh lime juice
Use the ripest pineapple you can get. Good signs: The yellow color pushes deep into the valleys between fruit segments. A leaf from the center of the rosette plucks out easily. The stem end has a rich, fruity smell.Finely dice some pineapple (sub-centimeter cubes). Don't worry about the fibrous center, you're making small enough pieces that it won't matter.
Take about half of your diced pineapple and toss with a little salt. Taste it and compare to the unsalted. When it's adequately salted, it will taste richer than just plain pineapple but it won't be clear that salt is the reason. If you overshoot, undersalt the other half; if you get it just right, do the other half to match. Mix them.
Sprinkle with berbere (ber-be-re, no silent vowel) and toss again. This is a spice blend from Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine that combines hot chilis with sweet, aromatic spices such as fenugreek and cardamom, by way of such intermediaries as dried ginger and cinnamon. I got mine from Penzeys. You want enough to leave you aware of your mouth after a bite, but not so much that the heat distracts from the aromas. If your berbere is very fresh, you may only need a light dusting. If it's a few months old, you will need more. Work your way up. You may want to repeat the season-by-halves trick.
Mince a little bit of onion or shallot and mix in. Not as much as you would use for a tomato pico de gallo. 2-3 tablespoons for 2 cups of pineapple. It's there to fill out the aroma profile and break the monopoly of sweetness, not to be a main flavor. Don't upstage the pineapple or berbere.
Chop cilantro and mix in. You can use more of it than the onion, but if you're a maniac like me you will need to use some restraint. The cilantro must support the berbere-pineapple aromas, not submerge them. It harmonizes really well with both.
Squeeze lime juice on. Half a lime will cover a cup or two of salsa, depending on your taste (and your lime). Toss, and taste for balance. You may need to boost the salt to catch up with the onion and cilantro.
I expected these ingredients to combine well, in the way that fruit salsas do, but I was caught off guard by exactly how deliciously everything interacts with the berbere (and, secondarily, by how well the cilantro works with the pineapple). Highly recommended.
18:46
