Grilled Pineapple

Pineapple is basically made up of water and sugar and by grilling it you can concentrate the flavors by reducing the water and caramelizing the natural sugars, making it perfect for the grill.

Preparation is very simple, just sliced fruit, water, and butter to make the most basic grilled fruit as an appetizer, main course, side dish, or dessert.

A grilled fruit kabob can make an excellent side dish to chicken, pork or seafood. Rings of grilled pineapple stacked together can make a wonderful presentation for ice creams. Simple stonefruit, (peaches, nectarines, plums), split, pitted, and grilled, then stuffed with berries, (strawberry, blueberry, rasberry) or cherries are a desert by them selves. Peaches grilled with pork and tarragon become much more than the sum of the parts, the play of sweet, sour, bitter, salty mixed with the smokiness from the grill transcends all expectations

In the gallery shown here, I have a pineapple, that I have peeled and macerated in bourbon and spices, it is then grilled on a extremely hot griddle with butter. A shot of bourbon is added to flambe, (TAKE EXTRA CARE HERE), and produce a crisp glaze on the fruit.

It is then cored, sliced and served over frozen yogurt, for a no added sugar desert.

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1. Select your Fruit

Fruits like apples, pears, and pineapples are the easiest to prepare since they are “hard” and they hold their shape while cooking unlike figs, peaches, nectarines, plums and mangos will become soft and mushy if overcooked. You will need to pick a fresh firm fruit that is close to but not perfectly ripe.

2. Cut the fruit

Many fruits are simply cut in half, and seeds / cores are removed, peels are left to help hold shape and moisture. Larger fruit can be sliced to expose more surface area cut them in half.

3. Soak the fruit

Once you have cut the fruit, cover it and soak it in a citrus bath to stabilize moisture and color. (1 TSP lemon juice per cup of water) (~20 to 30 min)

4. Lube and Grill

Use medium indirect heat and a very clean cooking grate. To keep the fruit from sticking to the grill, brush them with melted butter.

This basic process will give you delicious grilled fruit, for the rougechef twist, try adding spices to the citrus bath, throwing a stick of cinnamon into with apples, or add spices like nutmeg, allspice, cloves, or ginger to the melted butter used to brush the fruit with. If you want dust the fruit with brown sugar, just after they come off the grill.

Or machinate the fruit in a combination of spices and alcohols. A mixture of rum, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg works well with pineapple slices. Be careful when placing alcohol of any type one the grill, flash fires can be an issue.