All Entries Tagged With: "Pineapple"
Baked Chicken with Pineapple
Jean’s second dish is Baked Chicken with Pineapple. Chicken goes well with pineapple. The pineapple juice helps to tenderize the chicken.
The chicken turned out to be slightly on the sweet side as Jean added a lot more candied ginger than stated in the recipe to the dish. Jean loves candied ginger, so do I. Check out the goodness of candied ginger here.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- salt and pepper to taste
- 3 to 4 lbs chicken parts or split breast, boneless and skinless
- 10 to 12 green onions, chopped
- 1 cup pineapple juice
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped candied ginger
- 1 small can of sliced pineapples, halved
Pineapple Fillings
Pineapple is native to Brazil and central America, but is now a favorite crop in tropical and subtropical climates. Pineapple is a good source of manganese, as well as containing significant amounts of Vitamin C and B1.
Pineapple makes an excellent marinade and tenderizer because it contains bromeline, an enzyme that digests protein. The enzyme also keeps gelatin from setting, so pineapple is not good for fruit jellies.
I love pineapple but I seldom buy a whole pineapple. This is because I’m intimidated by the task of cutting up a pineapple. There are lots of so called eyes on the pineapple which need to be removed.
I guessed the exporter of pineapples are aware of this and nowadays, you’ll find a little brochure attached with the pineapple illustrating how to cut up a pineapple.
First, you remove the top and bottom of the pineapple.
Then, you stand the pineapple up on the flat bottom and cut the pineapple into quarters.
Remove the core which is too fibrous to eat.
Next, I divide the quarters into eights. A slimmer piece makes the removal of the skin easier. The last thing is to remove any remaining eyes on the pineapple.
To make the pineapple filling, I used:
- 2 pineapples
- 180g rock sugar (I added more because the filling is very tangy)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
Finely chop the pineapple in a food processor.
Transfer the grated pineapples to a pot and add the rock sugar and cinnamon powder.
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until most of the liquid has evaporated.
This is the most daunting part. It took me 3.5 to 4 hours to get the liquid evaporated. I was thinking if I drain the pineapple first to get rid of some of the juice, it will take me less time to cook it. But, on the other hand, I would want the pineapple filling to have a very concentrated flavour of pineapple by cooking off the liquid slowly. Well, is there a better way to do this? I wonder if this can be done in a slow cooker without the constant stirring.
After almost 4 hours of cooking, I finally ended with a bowl of pineapple fillings for the Tangerine Cookies and Pineappple Tarts. No wonder those homemade Pineapple Tarts are so expensive. I used to buy them in Malaysia for Chinese New Year celebration. It is so labour intensive to produce.
Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
While Minoo was making the Clam Chowder, Jean was busy preparing her Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. Both of them have to do their demonstration at the same time because the cake needed one hour to bake while the Clam Chowder needed time for simmering.
I had to run back and forth to both stations to take the photos of the processes. It was a quite a busy morning for me.
The Pineapple Upside-Down Cake was very pretty when it was turned upside down onto a plate. It is certainly a great recipe for potluck.
Ingredients
- 1 398ml can sliced pineapple
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 7 maraschino cherries
- 2/3 cup shortening
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups unbleached flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Click on the link below for the instructions.
