Recipe: Grilled Pineapple*

Grilling season is well underway!  In the summertime we eat outside on our deck every single night, and I can already taste the tender green beans, squash, and little red potatoes soon to grace my dinner table.  A couple of weeks ago I bought a delicious pineapple on the “Fill it Fresh” promotion at Lee’s and grilled it along with marinated chicken for dinner.  I’ve tried several recipes for making Grilled Pineapple through the years, finally concluding that the very best is also the simplest.  All it takes is pineapple and brown sugar! 

-Choose a nice, big ripe pineapple.  Try to find one that is mostly all yellow and smells good.

-Wash the pineapple and dry it off.  Remove the green top by twisting, and it will pop right off.

-Using a large sharp knife, take off the top and bottom, then cut the rest evenly into about 1 inch slices.  You should get about 6 nice slices.

 -Lay the slices one by one on a cutting board, and with a small, sharp knife, carefully slice around and remove the outside skin and the little round core to form nice rings.

-Put some brown sugar in a shallow bowl.

-Dip each pineapple ring into the brown sugar, using fingers to make sure it’s completely coated well—even around the outside edges.  Keep adding to it as you go, because as the juicy pineapple is dipped it will become moist and won’t stick as well.  You may need to dry out your bowl half way through before adding more sugar.

-Lie out in a single layer, cover, and place in fridge until ready to grill.  They will look somewhat moist and syrupy after awhile, but that’s OK.

-Grill over medium heat to desired brownness.  It only takes a few minutes.

-Eat right away alongside whatever else you’re having, or let them cook while you’re eating and serve for dessert.

*Originally distributed June 2014