Ingredient: Pineapples
Category: Fruit
Season: All
The pineapple (Ananas comosus) is a tropical plant and fruit, native to Uruguay, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Paraguay.
At one time, most canned and fresh pineapples came from the cultivar 'Smooth Cayenne'.
Since about 2000 , the most common fresh pineapple fruit found in U.S. and European supermarkets is a low-acid hybrid that was developed in Hawaii in the early 1970s.
Pineapple is commonly used in desserts and other types of fruit dishes , or served on its own.
Fresh pineapple is often somewhat expensive as the tropical fruit is delicate and difficult to ship.
Pineapples can ripen after harvest , but require certain temperatures for this process to occur.
The ripening of pineapples can be rather difficult as they will not ripen for some time and in a day or two become over-ripe, therefore, pineapples are most widely available canned.
When you buy a ripe pineapple:
Look for proud, lively green tufts that don’t look too aged or tired. Give one a tug if you can: if it’s ripe it should pull off easily.
Look for is the little thorny bits that stick out, they should be brown.
The colour of the pineapple:
Central America Pineapples are very green
Ivory Coast Pineapples are golden amber.
Feel the pineapple at the base: it should give and feel soft if it’s ripe, f
Don’t forget to smell its strong pineapple perfume, probably telling you more than anything if it’s ready to eat.
How to prepare your pineapple:
Slice off the leafy top and about ½ inch (1 cm) of the fruit with it, get this as straight as possible,put it to one side,
Then, cut off the opposite end and discard it.
Stand it upright and slice off the skin vertically in slices, going all the way round.
You, now have a whole peeled pineapple!
Dig out the ‘eyes (which are similar to those of a potato) with tip of a potato peeler.
Slice the pineapple vertically in half, then into quarters.
The central core can be tough, so slice this off along the centre of each quarter,
Cut the quarters into 7 mm (1 inch) thick slices.
Arrange in overlapping circles on your dish.
Sprinkle with a light dusting of sugar and
a little Cherry Brandy (Rum or other liqueur, depending on your taste)
Finally, pop the leafy top in the centre to garnish. |