Warm Rum and Pineapple dessert..

I’m always looking for special summertime desserts – the sort of thing I can rustle up really quickly, with minimum fuss. It shouldn’t be too difficult, but sometimes I simply run out of ideas! This is when this little gem of a pineapple dish comes into its own. A gorgeous combination of rum-flavoured sauce over warm, griddled fresh pineapple – with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream to completely spoil you and your pals. Give this a go – you won’t be sorry!

( And no, before anyone asks, you can’t use tinned pineapple for this!)

EQUIPMENT:

• a griddle pan (or even a plain frying pan will do)
• A shallow tray for marinating
• a small saucepan to cook the sauce
• A sharp knife to cut the peel off the pineapple.

INGREDIENTS:

One medium pineapple serves about 4 people. It’s really easy to double up for more .

• One fairly ripe fresh Pineapple, peeled, cut into quarters, woody centre bits removed and each quarter cut into 3 slices long ways. (see full description in NOTES below)

• 4 tablespoons of Dark Rum
• 2 ounces of dark brown sugar (I used dark Muscovado)
• Half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon (optional) and a little for sprinkling later on if you like.
• Low calorie cooking spray/splash of oil
• Vanilla ice cream

 

 

 

METHOD:

• Prepare the pineapple, and put it into a shallow dish in one layer

• Mix the rum, sugar and cinnamon together until they make a liquid sauce (see NOTES)
• Pour the rum mixture over the pineapple, and leave it to marinate for at least 30 minutes – or as long as you can – turning the slices over every so often. Rather than spend too much time turning it over, I tend to cover the dish with cling-film, and just slosh it about every so often.
• The recipe can be prepared ahead up to this stage.

When you’re ready to serve:

• Pour all the marinade into the saucepan (leaving as little behind as possible), and heat it until it bubbles up and reduces by half – Careful! This has melted sugar in it and could burn you!

• Then put it to one side to cool a little while you deal with the pineapple.
•  Give the pineapple a quick spray of low calorie spray – or toss it gently in a dessertspoonful of oil.
•  Heat your griddle pan to medium/hot (not too hot or the sugar will burn)
• Griddle the slices of pineapple for about 2-3  minutes on each side, (you may need to do this in batches) until they get those lovely brown lines on them. Put to one side as they’re ready.

To serve:

• Put 3 slices of griddled pineapple onto an individual serving plate
• Top with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream
• Drizzle the sauce over, and serve

NOTES:

• This dessert can be served straight away or allowed to cool. It will always be happy to sit for a while.
• I used Captain Morgan Rum for this as it’s slightly spicy ..( Arr, me hearties!)
• Muscovado sugar can be quite lumpy, so try to break them up as much as you can before adding the rum. There were a few small lumps when I poured over the marinade, but it made no difference to the end result.

To prepare a pineapple:

This is how I always prepare my pineapples, but of course you can cut it horizontally too – and remove the woody centre with a sharp knife or apple corer. I find this way easiest, and I’m all for making life easy 😉

• Cut off the top and bottom
• Stand the pineapple up on one end and slice down from top to bottom:

• Still standing it one its flat side – cut into quarters, then remove the woody centre, so that they look like the picture below:

 

• Remember to check that you’ve removed any extra little ‘eyes’ before cooking