Ben's brother Keven is coming to visit from California. Apparently he's tried several different eating regimens and I asked if he had any dietary requirements this time 'round. His response, tongue in cheek, was that he didn't eat lamb or possum or spinach but had to have pineapple with every meal. The joke was lost on me until it was explained - apparently a stereotype about Americans is that they eat pineapple with everything. My vengeance is to plan a meal with pineapple in every dish. And it's a fun challenge. I've flipped through cookbooks, I've search on-line, and I think I've done well. As I've mentioned before, I have a membership to the Cook's Illustrated Web site, and I found a desert that sounded interesting. However, horror of horrors, they wouldn't let me see it until I upgraded my membership. In a huff, and a minute and a huff, I started searching the Internet for other baked pineapple recipes and I think I found it. It's a strange site called helium.com but the recipe sounds right. Now, this is a recipe I haven't tried yet, but will have to report on later. Here it is:
Baked Pineapple with Cinnamon Whipped Cream
1 large pineapple
Dark rum (optional)
1 cup heavy cream
Ground cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut off the top of a whole pineapple. Place the pineapple in a baking dish and roast for about 1 hour.
- Whip the heavy cream in a chilled glass bowl. Add cinnamon to taste.
- Remove pineapple from the oven and cool. Cut the pineapple into 8 thick rounds. Cut these slices in half and arrange on a platter. Drizzle a small amount of rum over the pineapple and let it sit a few minutes to absorb.
- Serve pineapple slices in a bowl topped with whipped cream.
EXPERIMENTATION
Ok, so my first attempt wasn't a resounding success.
-What I didn't do: I didn't use the rum because Keven doesn't drink alcohol
-What didn't work: the cooking time is off - the centre of the pineapple was barely warm when I sliced it open. Also, the cinnamon whipped cream was a bit lack-lustre.
-What worked - the presentation rocks. I cooked the pineapple whole, with the skin on. To cut it, I left is standing and sliced downward all around so that it created petal-like leavings. It's kind of showy and pretty and fun.
-What I'll do next time:
1. cook it longer. I think the temperature is OK, but the cooking time is all wrong.
2. Look up whipped cream instructions - I think I just need to add a little sugar (not brown!) to bring out the flavours in the whipped cream. Actually, if I wanted to get really fancy, I could infuse the cream with the cinnamon before hand, cool it and then whip it.
3. Use the rum! PROBLEM - if I want to slice it like I did, standing up and like a flower, how will it soak in the rum without having to make my guests wait?
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