Pack your bags! This week, we’re away to the tropics again, revisiting one of my favourite fruits, the pineapple.
Although, as my research has found, and I’d guessed as much beforehand, the pineapple isn’t actually a fruit at all; it’s a herb! The same goes for bananas. One for the pub quiz there.
Anyway, for all intents and purposes, it’s a fruit. And what a fruit! I love its luscious juiciness, its tart flesh and its versatility. It goes well with almost all major ingredients.
We may make jokes about cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks, the 70s dinner-party trope, but they combine so well. Try a chunk of ripe pineapple alongside a piece of good Reggiano Parmesan and you’ll see it’s not such a laughing matter.
The enzymes within pineapple are excellent at breaking down protein, and as such can be used to tenderise meat (I’ve told you before how some pineapples are so strongly-laced with this bromelain enzyme that they can cause the gums to bleed whilst eating!) so it makes an excellent base for marinades for pork and tougher cuts of beef. It’s at its most magical, meat-wise, with ham.
Try marinating a ham joint in crushed pineapple and chili, then roast and baste it, allowing the pineapple to caramelise around the meat; just gorgeous. Its effect on protein also makes it a great way to make fish or seafood ceviches - the South American way of ‘cooking’ raw fish in citrus juices with seasonings. Pineapple adds a lovely dimension to scallops or sea bass, along with fresh tomato and clean herbs. Grilled pineapple, with lovely charred edges, goes nicely with fresh medium-rare tuna or swordfish steaks too. A great one for the days when you wheel out the barbecue into the hot summer sun. Fingers crossed, eh?
But this time around, we’re staying traditional, and using the pineapple in its sweet incarnation, by baking a simple puff pastry tart, to serve alongside a luscious passionfruit curd and some fresh grilled pineapple.
Topping it all off is a scoop of ice-cream for temperature and texture variation. I used a basic vanilla ice-cream - the vanilla marries well with the tropical fruits - but you could use any ice-cream you prefer, or even a nice soft sorbet of lemon, pineapple or passionfruit.
I wanted to get a real depth of flavour with the tart, and a nice chewy texture, so we’re going to almost confit the pineapple by simmering it in pineapple juice and a touch of lime until it becomes very soft and translucent.
It’s then drained and dried out before being baked simply over puff pastry with a little extra sugar, in much the same way as the classic ‘tarte fine aux pommes’ that you’ll see in most French bistros.
Along with the tart, the passionfruit curd adds a little smoothness to the dish, as well as that intoxicating, intensely tropical flavour. Passionfruit makes excellent curd, and it’s a good recipe to have in the notebook.
The recipe for the curd makes at least two 500ml Kilner jars’ worth, but it’s unlikely it’ll be hanging around for too long.
It’s lovely with scones, or spooned over ice-cream, and it’s especially good spread thickly on hot buttered toast.
A bit cheffy, this recipe, but not hard, and a perfect dish full of pick-me-up flavours for the days when you need a tropical lift.
For the pineapple tart:
1 large, ripe pineapple
1litre pineapple juice (good-quality carton juice is fine)
The juice and zest of 2 limes
A little unrefined caster sugar
A little unrefined Demerara sugar
1 x 375g packet rolled puff pastry
For the passionfruit curd:
24 passionfruit
A pinch of Maldon salt
4 large, fresh, free-range eggs
4 large, fresh, free-range egg yolks
300 grams unrefined golden caster sugar
200 grams unsalted butter
To serve:
Vanilla ice-cream or pineapple sorbet
A little mint or anise hyssop
METHOD:
First, make the curd; sterilise your jars and keep them warm.
Put the pulp of 20 of the passionfruit into a food processor with a pinch of salt, and pulse quickly just to loosen the seeds. Strain into a bowl through a non-reactive sieve, pushing as much of the pulp through with a plastic spatula.
Beat the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together. Melt the butter over a low heat in a heavy-based pan and, when fully melted, quickly stir in the sugar-egg mixture and the passionfruit juice.
Cook gently, stirring constantly, until the mixture is well thickened and nicely gloopy.
Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the pulp - seeds and all - of the remaining 4 passionfruit.
Cool slightly, then pour into the jars and seal. Keep refrigerated until required.
Now for the tart. Peel the pineapple and remove any stray ‘eyes’. Cut the pineapple into quarters down its length, and remove the hard core. Set aside one quarter, cut into 4 lengthwise wedges for grilling later. Slice the remaining three wedges as thinly as possible, and place these wafer-thin slices into a pan along with the pineapple juice, the lime juice and zest.
Bring to a simmer, then cover with a cartouche of greaseproof paper and cook on as low a heat as possible for about an hour, or until the pineapple becomes slightly translucent and very floppy.
Carefully strain the fruit from the cooking liquid and pat dry, or place in a very low oven to remove any excess moisture.
Return the liquid to the pan and reduce by simmering until it becomes a very thick, caramelised syrup. Heat the oven to 220ºC / Gas 7. Spread the pastry out on a lightly-floured baking sheet and sprinkle with a little Demerara sugar.
Lay out the pineapple in neat overlapping rows, and gently sprinkle with a little caster sugar. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the pineapple is just beginning to colour, and the pastry risen and golden. Remove from the oven and cool slightly before cutting into slices or wedges.
As the tart is cooking, sear or grill the remaining pineapple until well caramelised. To serve, spoon some curd onto each plate, top with a piece of the confit tart, a slice of grilled pineapple and a drizzle of syrup.
Finish with a scoop of ice-cream and some mint leaves.
