At this time of the year there is very little seasonal fruit available.
Broadly speaking, the berries and stone fruits in the shops are fairly tasteless, but pineapples are a decent bet and a versatile ingredient for desserts – an upside-down cake or a tarte tatin, for example.
Pineapples do not ripen once they are picked, so test any potential specimens by pulling a leaf from the top of the fruit – if it comes away easily then the pineapple is ripe. If you can detect a fermented odour then the fruit is past its best.
There are two main types of pineapple available to buy – those with golden flesh and those with white flesh. I prefer the former, which has sweeter and juicier fruit than the white variety.
This recipe uses fresh pineapple cooked in the style of a brochette, traditionally a metal or wooden skewer, but substituted here with a fragrant piece of lemongrass. Caramelised pineapple and lemongrass brochettes with exotic fruit sauce
Serves 4
Pineapple brochettes
1 large pineapple
4 sticks of lemongrass
20g butter
100g caster sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1 lime
Exotic fruit sauce
4 ripe apricots
1 mango
2 peaches
4 passion fruit
Start by making the sauce. Cut the apricots, mango and peaches in half, remove the stones then place the fruit in a liquidiser and blitz until smooth. Cut the passion fruits in half, scoop out the flesh, add it to the sauce and set aside.
Peel the pineapple by cutting off the top and bottom and remove the skin from the sides. Cut the pineapple into four and remove the core. Now cut each quarter of pineapple into two squares and skewer them with the lemongrass, giving two pieces per lemongrass stick, until you have four brochettes.
Heat the butter, sugar, cinnamon and star anise in a non-stick pan wide enough to hold all four brochettes at once. When the butter and sugar have dissolved add the brochettes and cook over a medium heat, turning every two minutes, until both sides of the brochettes are caramelised (take care not to colour the caramel too much, as this will give a bitter taste).
Once the pineapple has a golden colour take the pan off the heat, add the sauce then return to a gentle heat and cook for five minutes so the sauce coats the brochettes.
Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the pineapple brochettes to serving plates, spooning some sauce over the pineapple. Grate the zest of the lime over the top and serve.
A lusciously sweet but uncloying dessert wine wholly made from petit manseng, with delectable flavours of honey and apricot. Must be served very cold.
Ballet d'Octobre, Jurancon, 2010, Henri Ramonteu, France (Alexander Wines, £7.54)
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