Pineapple with Rum Syrup

Grilled pineapple is good, the caramelisation of the sugar adds so much flavour. Putting the pineapple on a spit and grilling it slowly, while basting it with rum caramel, adds delicious flavour and spectacle.

It’s a slow cook, around 2 hours, but so rewarding. Once cooked you can slice and serve with our optional mint, chilli and lime dressing. Ice cream would also work well as would greek yoghurt or creme fraiche.

BBQ Temperature

Ingredients

  • 1 large pineapple

For the syrup

  • 100g light brown sugar
  • 75ml water
  • 25ml Spiced Rum

Optional dressing

  • Fresh mint, chopped coarsely
  • 1 red birdseye chilli
  • Juice of 1 lime

Equipment

Method

  1. There are several ways to prep your pineapple but you want to end up with the skin and base removed. If you want to be flash, you’ll notice the pattern of the flesh spirals around the pineapple, you can use this natural pattern to cut spiral grooves. The beauty of doing this is you will have lumpy bits to caramelise.
  2. Push your skewer through your pineapple from the top with the skewer vertical and the pineapple sitting upright on a chopping board. This is the safest way. Do not do it with your hand on the end of the pineapple.
  3. Setup your grill for a direct cook at 140°C with your LetzQ in place. You will need to almost shut the top and bottom vents to achieve this.
  4. Put your spit onto the grill, it’s going to take about 1.5 hours for a small pineapple and 2 hours for a large one.
  5. Mix your syrup dressing ingredients in a cast-iron basting pot and put on your grill. I use a half-moon stainless grid as a shelf under my pineapple. Let it got hot and dissolved the sugar and reduce by half.
  6. Then start basting your pineapple. Reserve a little syrup to add once you have served.
  7. Once cooked remove the pineapple from the spit and slice. Sprinkle over chopped chilli and mint and squeeze over some lime.
  8. Use the remaining syrup to drizzle.