cooking @ home

Archive for the ‘Desserts’ Category

You can probably do this with a can of pineapple rings … but … they’ve been so long in their own syrup, it might not work. Probably would work in a pinch. Not as well, but well enough. (One day I’ll try it and let you know.) In any event, when in season, I love fresh pineapple. How can anyone not?

Ok, you’re wondering where the photograph of the finished product is … I don’t have one this time. Enjoy the one here of them on the grill and use your imagination. What happened? Family and friends were literally taking these out of my hands as I was finished making each one! Not making this up either!

I’m there going, “Wait wait, I gotta take a photo first!”. And this one’s going “No, the ice cream is melting with the warm pineapple” and takes her dish away. Then my buddy goes “Gimme my ice cream already, you can take a picture of the empty dishes and that’ll show’em how good it was. What more do you want?” and he takes his. Then I look at mine and say “Eh, what the heck …”

Really happened. I kid you not. So photos of the finished product hopefully next time! You know what? Naw! The pic of them on the grill says a thousand words already.

Rum-Soaked Grilled Pineapple (over Ice Cream)
©2007 Harry Kenney

One fresh pineapple
1 cup of (light) rum
1-2 tbsp sugar

Added bits:

Vanilla ice cream
Chocolate jimmies
Whipped cream

Take the fresh pineapple. Get rid of tops and side skins. Cut down middle making 1/2 inch circles. Leave the core as it’s needed to hold them together on the charcoal grill. Put the slices in a bowl and add a cup or so of rum. Move the pineapple about to get them covered. Leave soak for about five minutes, come back, move them around again.

Drain the liquid — preferably in a glass for later drinking. Pat down both sides with paper towel to get off the excess. (So the grill can better brown the outsides.) Sprinkle a bit of sugar on both sides. This too will help with the browning and the caramelization.

Place them on the grill until you see they are getting nice brown grill marks on both sides. Varies by heat and a lot of things but roughly two, two-and-a-half minutes per side. Btw, I find transporting them out and back on a cookie sheet works great. You still want some “heft” to the pineapple, and you don’t want them overly brown or cooked. Bring back in and let cool just enough that you can work with them.

Forget the knife, I like nature to tell me what to pull off and what to leave. So going around each circle, pull off chunks with your fingers and place over vanilla ice cream. One circle’s worth of pineapple per dish of ice cream works fine. Serve that way or add your favorite toppings, just don’t let the added topics overwhelm the star of this show. For mine, I added a light dusting of chocolate jimmies and whipped cream worked nicely.