How to Buy and Cut Pineapple plus Fresh Pineapple Recipes

My great niece had a friend visiting a while back, and the child's eyes lit up when she saw a fresh pineapple on my counter. It was if she she was looking at a big chocolate layer cake.

"Are we going to eat pineapple," she asked hopefully?

When I said sure, she had a look of pure joy. My ears were even pierced by that excited squeal that only tweens can do.

A kid excited about fresh fruit. She's OK in my book. This same little angel also took home leftovers of my pasta and pesto cause she'd never tasted anything like it before and she liked it so much. I love this kid!

In any event, my young house guest explained she only got pineapple out of a can, unless she was visiting her grandmother, because her mom didn't know how to cut fresh pineapple (yeah right).

So in her honor, I want to include easy instructions for how to cut pineapple and how to pick a good fresh pineapple. When you get a good fresh pineapple, there's nothing like it. Pick a mediocre one and you might as well have gotten a can.

When buying fresh pineapple, the only way we have of really knowing if it's ripe is by smell (color doesn't really matter). Pick up the pineapple and smell the bottom of it. If it smells like fresh sweet pineapple it's ripe; if it has no smell, it's not ripe yet; and if it smells like wine, it's over ripe and well on its way to rotting.

How to Cut Pineapple
Cutting a fresh pineapple isn't as intimidating as it appears. The first thing to realize is that there will be some waste. With that in mind, here's a simple method.

1. Chop off the top about a 1/2 inch below the leaves.
2. Cut off about 1/2 inch off the bottom.
3. Cut Pineapple into quarters (photo 1).
4. Cut out the inner tough core of each quarter (photo 2).
5. Discard core and cut away skin of pineapple, making the cuts as shallow as possible, while still removing the "eyes" from the fruit (photo 3).
6. Slice quarters into slices of desired thickness.



Favorite Fresh Pineapple Recipes

• Purple Pineapple Smoothie -- Kids and adults alike will love this healthy and tasty vegan smoothie that features the flavors of pineapple, blueberries and banana.
• Chris Schlesinger's Pineapple Chutney -- This flavorful chutney is great on grilled fish sandwiches, but you can use it in a variety of ways.
• Martin Yan's Pineapple Fried Rice (pictured at right)-- To create a beautiful pineapple container for the rice, cut a pineapple down the middle vertically, and cut out the flesh.
• Pineapple and Sausage Rice in Coconuts -- Young coconuts, used in this exquisite recipe, are sold in Asian markets and in some large supermarkets.

Food Fun -- Pineapple Alligator Food Sculpture (pictured at the top of this post)
This awesome alligator is no swamp-lurker, he'd much rather be front and center on your buffet. Creative genius Sidney Escowitz, designed the clever alligator. He generously shared the instructions with FabulousFoods.com. Click here for how to make this project.

Sidney has included 50 clever food sculptures in his book Entertaining Edibles. Click here for details.