Cooking with Pineapple

Maybe it's the memory of our honeymoon in Hawaii floating in our heads, but Jenny and I really have a thing for pineapple. Our visit to the Dole plantation was a relative let-down from a tourist standpoint, but it was a real treat from a culinary view. Our free samples were delicious. Soft, but not mushy and with a pronounced sweetness and light acidity. Sorry to say, but the pineapples available here on the mainland rarely taste as good as those that are consumed fresh in paradise.

Since joining Weight Watchers, we've been eating candy and sweets a lot less and consuming fruits a lot more. To me, the pineapple is the king of all fruits. It's flavor is so versatile that it can be featured in both sweet and savory dishes equally as well. It can be consumed raw or cooked by a host of different methods.

I volunteered to prepare the dessert for my company's recent cookout. Since the purpose of the exercise was to put the grills through their paces, I decided immediately that grilled fruit was to be the centerpiece of the dessert.

Pineapple has all the qualities needed for great grilling. It's firm enough to stay on the grate and not fall through to the coals. The fruit has a lot of sugar, so it browns nicely and develops a complex flavor when cooked. It also tastes great hot!

I used a rocket-hot (clean) grill to lightly brown both sides of the pineapple, then cut the rings into quarters and served them with pound cake, vanilla ice cream and a simple strawberry sauce. The dessert was a big hit, even after everyone filled their bellies with meats and side dishes. There was a distinct absense of talking while people were eating, which is always a good sign.

Pineapple-Strawberry Shortcake

1 Whole Fresh Pineapple, peeled and cored
1 Sarah Lee Pound Cake
8 oz. Strawberries chopped roughly
2-3 tbsp. Sugar
Vanilla Ice Cream

Toss the strawberries in sugar and refrigerate covered overnight. Cut the pineapple into 1/2" rings.

Cook the strawberries with liquid in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat until
the strawberry chunks have broken down and the mixture becomes thick and
syrup-like.

Grill the pineapple over high heat on a well-cleaned grill. Serve with the sliced pound cake, ice cream and strawberry syrup.

I didn't calculate the points value, but light pound cake and light vanilla ice cream can be substituted to bring the value down. The recipe serves 6.

Switching gears, I also tried a savory dish with pineapple this week. On a whim, I constructed a Hawaiian style sandwich for lunch. It's nothing complicated, just a few slices of honey-baked ham and thin sliced pineapple with a little yellow mustard. The flavor was great though! This sandwich was perfect on a summer day, and it was a nice break from my usual ham and cheese.

I can't say what inspired me to try a host of pineapple dishes this week, but I feel like I've loosened up with regards to using the fruit in a variety of recipes. That's the glory of stepping out of "ham and cheese" mode or "raw fruit" mode and opening up to new flavors.

Of course you can still just eat the fruit raw, but that'd make for a pretty boring post.

Update 8/23 - In my eagerness to post I completely forgot to mention that, yes, pineapple is an especially light treat. Truth be told, I'd have just settled on the fruit and ice cream in my dessert. That would have considerably lightened the dish! The play of hot vs. cold in this dish is the key. The pound cake just gives it a base.

Update 9/12 - The photo of the grilled pineapple was entered in this month's Does My Blog Look Good in This photography contest!