Malibu Caramelised Pineapple - totally tropical!

I tend not to make dessert during the week, but save the calories for Sunday evenings and any leftovers go on to Monday, which helps to cheer up a sometimes glum Monday dinner.  This week, because it had been for ever since we'd had one, I bought a pineapple and then pondered on what to do with it.  We've had plenty of just plain pineapple with cream desserts and sometimes pineapple with fresh mint sugar (which is lovely) but this time I wanted to involve it in some kind of cooking process.  I obviously had caramelisation in my back of my mind, but it took some thought for it to surface!

As I pondered on the best way of caramelising the pineapple - in a pan?  Under the grill?  In the oven?  Use the blowtorch? - I also considered what flavour(s) to put with it and in what form.  We had some Greek yoghurt in the fridge, so that would be a tasty accompaniment, but I also wanted something to give the pineapple some juice as the caramelisation process tends to dry the fruit out slightly.  Perhaps not surprisingly, I began to consider alcohol and Rum Chatta and Malibu were right up there as choices.  I'm so glad I went with the Malibu as the flavours are just made to go together and it gave the pineapple such a great depth of flavour.

I eventually opted to use a combination of the grill and the blowtorch for the caramelisation, which worked perfectly.  The grill did the legwork of lightly cooking the fruit, melting the sugar and almost caramelising enough, but a quick go over with the blowtorch added the lovely charred flavour of burned sugar that is essential.

Allowing the caramelised fruit to macerate for a number of hours in a drizzle of the Malibu turned out to be a great decision as the fruit absorbed the alcohol beautifully.  When you bit into a piece, the first flavour you got was a fairly intense bitterness from the burned sugar, then the cooling juice combined with the slight heat of the rum alcohol, which turned into sweet pineapple and a hint of coconut flavours.  Gorgeous effect!

My son opted for a couple of spoonfuls of rum and raisin ice cream to go with his fruit, which I am quite sure was little short of divine.  LOL  I am sure that a Chantilly cream would be lovely too.  Regrettably, I went for the lower calorie version of Greek yoghurt, which really was no hardship, being utterly delicious and very moreish!

I haven't given quantities in the recipe as it really depends on how big a pineapple you have and how much sugar and Malibu you want to involve.

Pineapples are a good price in the shops at the moment (April), so go on - indulge!

MALIBU CARAMELISED PINEAPPLE   (Serves 3)

Ingredients :

One large pineapple
soft brown sugar
Malibu liqueur.

Method :

Prepare your pineapple by cutting off its top and tail, then removing the skin.  Discard these pieces.  Make sure to take out any "eyes" that remain, along with any seeds that might be hiding in the fruit.  Then cut the pineapple into four pieces, each piece having a section of the core down one side.

Turn the pineapple piece to one side and cut that piece of core out.  I always have a gnaw on these pieces, as the core holds just as much Bromelain as the flesh does.  (Scientific studies have shown Bromelain to be useful as an anti inflammatory, so I'll take as much of that as I can get!).

Once the core is removed, cut the pineapple quarter into bite size slices and put them onto a foil covered baking tray.  Repeat with the other three quarters.

Pre-heat the grill (or broiler, if you're American or Canadian!) to maximum.

Next, sprinkle each pineapple slice with a good quantity of soft brown sugar and place the tray high up under the grill.  Cook until the sugar has dissolved and become sticky. 

If you don't possess a blowtorch, then simply leave the pineapple under the heat until the sugar has burned a little.  This may take some time depending on how juicy your pineapple is and how hot your grill gets!  However, if you do possess a kitchen blowtorch, this is the time to wield it across the top of each pineapple slice, taking care not to burn the sugar a little too much!

Once you've done that first side, quickly flip the slices over and repeat with the sugar and heat.

Moving fairly swiftly so as to not allow the pineapple to cool and stick to the foil, remove the slices to a dish which can cope with all the slices in one layer.  I used my Pyrex lasagne dish, which worked perfectly.  Taking the Malibu, drizzle it lightly over the top of the slices and deliver a flourish of rather more to the gaps in between.  You don't want to wash the caramelised sugar off the slices!

Cover the dish with cling film and place in the fridge for the fruit to absorb some of the Malibu and become gorgeous.  Oh yes, and cool down.  I left mine for a good 4-5 hours.

Serve with Greek yoghurt or a compatible ice cream such as rum & raisin, vanilla, or chocolate and remember not to drive anywhere immediately afterwards.  *chuckle*

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Prawn & Pineapple curry - mmmnn, fruity!

Somehow or another, we've wound up with several little bits of things left over from dishes that either didn't happen, or where ingredients have been too much and a portion of them were put into the freezer "for another day".  One such is a tin of pineapple.  Somehow or another we've managed to accumulate two of them in the tin cupboard, which really is just one too many.

So I set my mind to pondering on what could be done with said pineapple. What it was supposed to be, was part of a salad.  However, England being what it is, the "too hot for anything but salad" days have gone for now and left me with a pineapple glut.  The obvious answer was to bake a pineapple upside down cake - and I wouldn't rule out the second tin being disposed of that way - but I'm afraid I just couldn't justify two cakes in quick succession.  No, I felt sure there was a savoury context I could use a tin of pineapple in - it was just a matter of deciding what.  Once again, the obvious is a sweet and sour chicken dish, but son & heir really isn't keen on that.  Which led me to thinking about the curries that involve fruit.  Our local Indian takeaway does a curry with pineapple and lychee, so I knew it was possible.

What goes well with pineapple, then?  Coconut.  Yep, that's perfect.  Chicken, or fish?  Prawns!  Yes, I believe I've seen salads with pineapple and prawns, so they have to be nice together.  A coconutty, pineappley, prawney .... um .... tomato?  Yes, that'd work, oh and I've got my new tamarind sauce, I could use some of that too!  Coconut cream would thicken it nicely and a combination of curry powders would provide depth of flavour.  And so, the delicious prawn & pineapple curry took form in my mind - and this evening, in my kitchen.

It really proved to be as good as I'd thought it would be.  To my taste buds, it was slightly frisky with chilli heat but for hubby and son & heir, they could have taken it a lot hotter so maybe next time I'll add a few red chilli flakes to just up the heat ante a little.  I could still taste the prawns (which was, for me, a desired result) and the pineapple juice as well as the tamarind sauce gave the curry a delicious acidity, together with - oddly - a degree of sweetness which a handful of peas helped along.

Now as for Cook's Tips, I have just the one which is to make sure that you add the cooked prawns at the very last minute, when you are just about to serve. They only take a twinkling to heat up and you definitely don't want them simmering in the sauce for longer than it takes for them to do that, or you'll have pink curls of prawn flavoured rubber - and nobody likes those in their curry.

So there you are!  The curry took me around 35/45 minutes to make, so it is a good one for an evening when you've not a lot of time or energy.  I really liked this curry and am looking forward to the next instalment of it!  

PRAWN & PINEAPPLE CURRY   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

1 heaped tbsp solid coconut oil
1 red onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
3 tsp medium curry powder
1 tsp tandoori curry powder
half a tsp ground coriander
quarter of a tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 large vine ripened tomatoes, cored and diced
pinch of sea salt
quarter of a tsp ground black pepper
110g tinned pineapple pieces, with juice
120ml hot water
1 tsp fish stock powder (or a low salt fish stock cube)
1 tbsp tamarind sauce (or 1 tbsp mango chutney)
15g coconut cream
a small handful of frozen peas
15g butter
250g cooked, peeled, cold water prawns.

Method :

Gently heat the coconut oil in a deep frying pan and add the onion and garlic. Fry, stirring regularly, until the garlic is a light golden colour and the onion has turned transparent.  This should take up to 10 minutes.

Add both the curry powders, coriander, cinnamon and turmeric and stir to combine.  Cook for 2-3 minutes until all trace of dry powder has gone.

Add the chopped tomatoes and stir well.  Cook until the tomatoes are beginning to soften, adding the sea salt & black pepper along the way.

Add the pineapple pieces, pineapple juice, water and fish stock and stir to combine.  Bring to a lively simmer and simmer to reduce the liquid by at least half.

Add the tamarind sauce (or mango chutney) and coconut cream and stir through until the coconut cream has dissolved and combined.

Add the frozen peas and butter and stir through.  You can now either simmer until the sauce has reduced to your liking, or add a little more hot water to thin the sauce to your liking.

Finally, add the prawns and stir through.  Continue to simmer until the prawns are heated through properly and serve in warm bowls with steamed white basmati rice.

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Pineapple & Coconut Chicken Curry

For absolutely ages - and I do mean ages - hubby has been asking for a "fruity, mild, creamy, Caribbean type curry".  However, I've really only just begun to get my head around Indian curries, without trying to expand my repertoire to the Caribbean!  However, I've been reading, watching, thinking and reading a bit more, to absorb all that is encapsulated within a "Caribbean type" curry.

I've had a few false starts, too.  Curries that started off with every intention of going Caribbean, but wound up being resolutely Indian.  I've had one or two "nearlies", in that they have been too heavy and a little bit cloying (forget using cream then!) and too rough in the spicing (leave out the ginger and cayenne), but nearly there.

Last night, however, I hit the nail right on the head.  Now please don't - for a millisecond - think that this is an "authentic" Caribbean curry, because I wouldn't know one of those if it jumped up and bit me on the nose.  No, this is "our idea of what a Caribbean curry would be like" - so is quite probably very different.

However, if you forget where I was trying to go with it and just take it on face value as "a curry", it was blinking marvellous.

Friends have suggested that maybe it has a flavour of Thailand, or Singapore.  Well, I'm sure it probably does, as in the course of my reading and absorbing, I visited both those destinations and no doubt tucked some of their methods and/or flavourings under my wing.

I was jolly pleased with it, anyway.  You know you are on the right track, when you take that first taste of the very young sauce and your immediate reaction is "Mmmmmmn!".  Oh it tasted good - and very right - and very promising.

I had originally intended to make this curry with some of the Barcut Farms rose veal - and I'm quite sure it would be fantastic with that.  I shall do a slow cooker version that would be perfect for the rose veal, now that I've had such success with the chicken.  If only I could remember to take the meat out of the freezer the night before, so that it has defrosted by the time it comes to putting it in the slow cooker.  But I didn't - and so off we went to Spring Fields butchers for some chicken, which doesn't take anything like as long to cook.  D'oh!  Nothing lost, however, as the chicken curry was a singular triumph.

I'd had plenty of time to formulate a plan for the chicken version, so a sudden change of protein type wasn't a problem at all.  For once, I allowed plenty of time to do all the cutting, chopping and peeling - particularly as I also had a plan for a fruit salad, to use up the leftover pineapple.  (A few leftover strawberries and a well ripened papaya worked beautifully).

I do so much prefer to cook knowing I've got time in hand.  I hate the frenzied, Masterchef style of cooking where an imaginary Greg Wallace is yelling "only 45 minutes to go!" in "you should be panicking now!" tones in my head.  I much prefer the Two Fat Ladies' style of "I'll just be peeling and chopping this onion, whilst regaling the assembled throng with a tale of breakfast at the Thruppington-Smythes, back in 1944" cooking.  Much less stressful - and I'm quite sure that the end result is better for it, too.

So, with Clarissa Dickson-Wright (bless her) controlling my knife skills, I had a happy hour or so at the chopping board, before moving to the cooker and adopting a more Jennifer Paterson approach.  Woe betide any onion chunk that decided to become airborne and avoid my frying pan.  One stern look soon took the wind out of its sails and everything was peace and tranquillity again.

I love cooking curries.  You just sit there and add stuff to your frying pan in order and lo and behold, a curry appears.  Magic.

There is also magic to be had when cooking with coconut milk, I think.  It's the transformation that occurs.  When you open the tin you are confronted with a supposedly impenetrable wall of thick white goo yet, suddenly, there comes a flood of sweet coconutty water.  After five minutes' stirring in the pan, you suddenly realise that the contents of the tin seem to have doubled in size and turned to - albeit delicious - pond water.  Minutes spent diligently and gently reducing said pond water, turns it into a delicious sauce - however, beware turning your back on it, or within seconds it will dry out, the fat will separate and you'll wonder what the heck happened and where did the magic go.  Fickle, that's what it is.  Fickle coconut milk!

Ahem.  So anyway - back to the job at hand - if you're not moved to poetry by pineapple, I am quite sure you could substitute mango without seriously damaging the balance of the dish.  However, the two ingredients that are essential to the balance, are the sweet potato and the green pepper.  You just have to have sweet potato, even if you hate the stuff and throw it away before you eat, or the sweetness balance just won't be right.  Likewise, with the green pepper, it lends a savouriness to the balance that would be utterly lost without it.  So there.  Don't say you weren't warned.

A perfect curry for the hot weather, this one will fill you full of Caribbean sunshine without weighing down your hammock.  Lovely!  Chin chin! 

PINEAPPLE & COCONUT CHICKEN CURRY     Serves 3-4

Ingredients :

2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 large onion, half chopped fine, half left chunky
a pinch of sea salt
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 small sweet potato, cut into 1cm dice
4 chestnut mushrooms, quartered
1 green pepper, cut into 1cm dice
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp Garam Masala, divided into two
2 tsp mild curry paste
200ml chicken stock
400ml coconut milk
200g fresh pineapple cut into 1cm dice
2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped and divided into two
1 tbsp coconut powder (optional).

Method :

1.  Heat the sunflower oil in a deep frying pan or wok.  Add all the onion and a pinch of sea salt and gently fry until the smaller pieces are golden brown and the larger pieces transparent.  This should take around 10-15 minutes.

2.  Add the garlic, sweet potato, mushrooms and green pepper and continue to fry until the mushrooms are beginning to soften.

3.   Move the vegetables to the outside of the pan and add the chicken to the centre.  Increase the heat slightly and fry the chicken until most sides of each chunk are whitened.  The vegetables will mix in as you turn and fry the chicken.

4.  Add the ground coriander, cumin, 1 tsp Garam Masala and the curry paste.  Stir to combine.

5.  Add the chicken stock and stir to combine.  Bring to a gentle boil, cover the pan and cook for 10 minutes or so, or until the sweet potato is softened but not cooked through.

6.  Remove the lid and, stirring occasionally, allow the liquid to reduce by two thirds.

7.  Add the coconut milk and stir to combine.

8.  Add the pineapple, half the fresh coriander and the coconut powder (if using it).  Bring to a gentle boil, but stir gently and more regularly to avoid the mixture catching on the pan.  Continue to cook while the sauce reduces, until it reaches your preferred consistency.

9.  Add the remainder of the fresh coriander and the last tsp of Garam Masala.  Stir through and serve on fluffy Basmati rice, with naan bread for dipping.

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Sweetbird Smoothies : another product review!

There’s going to be a little rush on product reviews, as the lovely people at Beyond the Bean sent us a job lot to try out!

The next yummy thing we sampled, were the new Smoothies from Sweetbird.

Unlike a lot of Smoothies out there, Sweetbird make theirs completely from fruit, the whole fruit and nothing but the fruit.  There is no dairy involvement at all, which is nice if you’re dairy intolerant and also nice because it results in a gorgeously tangy smoothie.  Of course, it would also mean they are attractive to vegetarians and vegans alike.

I prefer to drink my smoothies at breakfast time, my son would have had a smoothie at any old time of day, but wound up using them as an after-school snack, which is something of which I approved wholeheartedly.  Seemed to me to be a great improvement on a packet of crisps.  Hubby, unfortunately, couldn’t cope with the sharpness and after a magnificent bout of face pulling, opted out of this taste testing.  So, from that, I’d say it’s probably best to just try one and see what you think!

By far and away the favourite of the bunch, for me, was the Blackcurrant and Apple.  I was intrigued to note the inclusion of Black Carrot juice and felt it would have been good to have included a black carrot in the fruit that was grouped together for the packaging pictures (which seemed a little bit dull, to me).  After all, there can’t be that many things that include Black carrot juice!

Son’s favourite was the Orange and Mango version (which isn’t surprising, considering the other version was a Pineapple and Passionfruit one – and we’ve already discovered he’s not that keen on Passionfruit!).  In truth, I’d have been as happy with one as with the other, as you could almost feel them doing you good as they went down.

At £1.79 per bottle, they aren’t the cheapest things in the world – especially when you’re counting the pennies.  However, if you have problems getting fruit into your children, or don’t enjoy chomping your way through several items of fruit in a day, then these little lovelies are your answer.  Of course, if money is no object, then I’d have one with breakfast every day, as I think they are a great way to wake up your tastebuds!

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Fresh Pineapple with Mint sugar : simple but lovely!

Pineapple is one of our favourite fruits where making a dessert is concerned.  That and Lemon!

So, when I saw Jamie Oliver producing a dessert which involved fresh pineapple with fresh mint mixed with sugar sprinkled over it, of course I had to have a go.

Wow!  If you've not tried it, put a pineapple on your shopping list right now.





FRESH PINEAPPLE WITH MINT SUGAR

Ingredients :

A fresh pineapple
A small bunch of fresh mint
2 tbsp granulated sugar
Cream, to serve

Method :

1.  Cut the bristly top and the hoary bottom from your pineapple, then sit it on it's freshly cut bottom and go around it cutting the peel off from top to bottom.  You can generally remove the "eyes" as you go, using this method.  Watch out for pips, too.  (Who'd have thought that pineapples had pips!).

2.  Cut your pineapple in half from top to bottom and each piece in half, until you've got four wedges.

3.  Take each wedge and cut off the woody centre section and discard (but don't forget to have a nibble on them before you chuck them away - cook's perks, and all that!).  Then cut each wedge into bite-sized sections.

4.  Remove the mint leaves from the stalks and discard the stalks.  Chop the leaves finely, then add to the sugar and toss to infuse with the mint.

5.  Sprinkle the minty sugar over the pineapple, then cover and leave to chill in the fridge.

6.  Serve with fresh cream.