A purple Peruvian pineapple dessert

The best of Peruvian Cuisine (Lo mejor de la Cocina Peruana) 2009 César Chacón, Cuzco Peru

Loving a new challenge, I've been wanting to make this dessert for some time and although friends said that they had spotted purple corn in various greengrocers I couldn't find any. Les bought some seeds so we could grow our own. 

As this has been a very, very hot summer with little rain the corn struggled and we felt we'd have to try again next year. But, one of the cobs had a few kernels and I thought I'd give it a go anyway and lo, success.

“The richness and variety of Peruvian food originates from the meeting of the native and Spanish cultures. . . the diverse climatic conditions present in the three different geographic regions of Peru (coast, mountain and jungle) have had a vital role in the development of an infinite number of tastes, flavours, smells and colours that make Peruvian cuisine unique within the Americas” the authors.

Desserts (Postres): Mazamorra morada

Ingredients: ½ kg purple corn; 1 apple; ½ pineapple with the skin; 1 quince; 1 large piece of cinnamon bark; ½ tsp anis; 3 cloves; ½ cup of  plums; ½ cup of cherries; 2 lemons; 1 ½ cups of sweet potato or chuño flour: 1 kg sugar

Preparation:

1. Boil the purple corn in 3 litres of water, then drain and place the purple water in a pot and leave over the heat.

2. Add the sugar, the cloves; the cinnamon and the fruit, peeled and cut into cubes. The plums and the cherries should be washed and added whole.

3. Leave it all to cook on a low heat. When ready add the sweet potato flour which should be previously dissolved in hot water.

4. Stir for around 15 minutes and add the lemon juice, place the mazamorra in glass dessert dishes and pat a sprinkle of ground cinnamon on top. This dessert should be served cold.

Easy to make and delicious, Anne

Pineapple at High Tea

Elenor’s punch was a combination of ingredients from these two recipes from the Bandon Grove School Building Centenary Cookbook 1882-1982 reprinted in 2016 to celebrate the “Back to Bandon Grove School Gathering”.

Quick Fruit Punch, Maureen Barnes

1 lge tin pineapple and orange juice (Golden Circle 3litre); 1 tin fruit salad; 2 bottles of ginger ale; ice

Method: Mix all ingredients in a punch bowl and add ice.

Fruit Punch, Jenny Howell

1 ½ cups sugar; 1 cup cold tea; 2 cups pineapple juice; 1 bottle blackberry nip; 2 lge bottles dry ginger ale; 1 ½ cups hot water; ½ cup bruised mint; juice 3 oranges and 3 lemons; 2 lge bottles lemonade

Method: Dissolve sugar in water, let cool; add this mixture to tea, pineapple, orange and lemon juice, mint and blackberry nip. Chill well. Add lemonade and dry ginger ale, just before serving.

https://www.thespruceeats.com/judys-pineapple-cake-3059217

Pineapple Cake With Pineapple Filling

"For even more tropical flavor, add a cup of flaked sweetened coconut to the pineapple filling mixture.”

Ingredients:

For the Cake: 2 cups sugar; 2 sticks butter (softened); 3 cups flour (all-purpose, 13 1/2 ounces); 1 tablespoon baking powder; 3/4 cup milk; 1 tablespoon vanilla; 6 egg (just whites, stiffly beaten, reserve yolks for filling)

For the Pineapple Filling: 3 tablespoons flour; 1 1/2 cups sugar; 1 (20-ounce) can pineapple (crushed, undrained); 6 egg yolks (remaining from the cake); 1 stick/4 ounces margarine (or butter)

Steps to Make It: Gather the ingredients.

Heat the oven to 350 F (180° C/Gas 4). Grease and flour three 8-inch round cake pans.

In a mixing bowl with electric mixer, cream 2 cups of sugar and 2 sticks of butter together until light and fluffy.

Combine 3 cups of flour and baking powder in another bowl.

Add the flour mixture alternately with milk to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.

Gently fold in beaten egg whites.

Divide batter among the three prepared cake pans.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until layers test done. Remove from pans and cool.

Pineapple Filling: Gather the ingredients.

In a saucepan, stir 3 tablespoons of flour and 1 1/2 cups of sugar together. Add pineapple and egg yolks, blending well. Add 1 stick of margarine or butter. Cook over medium, stirring, until mixture boils and thickens, 5 to 10 minutes.

Spread filling between layers and on top and sides of cake.

Pineapple for entree

The Jean Bowring Cookbook 1970 Sydney

First course appetiser cocktails: Strawberry and pineapple cocktail 

425g can of cubed pineapple; 3 cups fresh strawberries; ¼ cup mint leaves; crystallised cherries and mint sprigs for garnishing

Drain the pineapple. Hull and wash the strawberries. Place the pineapple syrup in a saucepan and bring it to the boil. Pour it over the mint leaves, cover and let stand until cool. Chill the pineapple cubes, the strawberries and the mint syrup.

At serving time, spoon the fruit into cocktail glasses and add some of the minted syrup. Garnish each with a cherry and a sprig of mint.

Two quirky pineapple salads from the 1940s

The American Woman’s Cook Book, edited and revised by Ruth Berolzheimer, Director Culinary Arts Institute Chicago 1946

“To become a good cook requires more than the blind following of a recipe. This is frequently illustrated when several women living in the same community, all using the same recipe, obtain widely differing results. It is the reason so many cooks say, “I good luck with my cake today”, or “I had bad luck with my bread yesterday”. 

Happily, luck causes neither the success or the failure of a product. To become a good cook means to gain a knowledge of foods and how they behave, and skill in manipulating them. The recipe by itself, helpful as it is, will not produce a good product; the human being using the recipe must interpret it and must have skill in handling the materials it prescribes.” The editor.

Pineapple and Nut Salad in Tomato Baskets

1 cup crushed pineapple; 1 cup broken nut-meats; French dressing; 6 tomatoes; mayonnaise

Mix pineapple with nut-meats and stand in French dressing in the refrigerator. Peel a cut off the top of each tomato leaving a strip to form a handle. Carefully scoop out the center and fill with the pineapple and nuts. Place one teaspoon of mayonnaise on top of each basket.

Pineapple and Cream Cheese Salad

6 slices canned pineapple; 1 cup cream cheese; purple grape-juice; French dressing; lettuce leaves

Work enough grape-juice into the cream cheese to soften it so that it can be made into balls with the hands or with butter paddles. Place a slice of pineapple on a lettuce leaf, put a cheese ball on top and pour grape-juice and French dressing over all.

Pineapple lunches across the Pacific

Luncheon Dishes compiled by the National Trust Shop Committee, Hobart

I think this is the littlest cook book I’ve ever used! Anne

Tasmanian Beef Casserole

2 lbs (1 kg) blade steak; 1 dstsp brown sugar; 2 unpeeled apples (chopped); 1 small tin crushed pineapple; 1/3 tin condensed tomato soup; salt and pepper; 1 maggi beef stock cube; 1 stalk celery; 1 diced carrot; 1 small chopped onion

Method: remove any fat from meat and chop into small cubes (I browned these in a little oil, before . . .) Mix well with all remaining ingredients and cook at 350°F (180°C) covered for 2 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes and green vegetables or rice and noodles.

Mexican Fish Dish (Salmon)

1 tin salmon; 1 tin crushed pineapple; ¼ cup rice (measured before cooking); 2 tblsp chutney; 2 tsp curry powder; ¼ tsp salt; 2 cups milk; ½ cup plain flour; ¼ cup margarine; 2 hard boiled eggs (chopped); parsley as garnish

Method: Place fish and cooked rice in casserole and mix well. Make thick white sauce with margarine, flour and milk. Add pineapple, salt, curry, chutney and eggs. Pour over fish and rice. Re-heat and garnish with chopped parsley.

Pineapple with a punch

Good Housekeeping’s Cookery Book, compiled by the Good Housekeeping Institute 1969 London

Non-alcoholic Cups and Punches: Pineapple Crush

A 19oz (500ml) can of pineapple juice; juice of 1 orange; juice of 1 lemon; sugar; 2 pints (1 litre) ginger ale

Combine the fruit juices, sweeten to taste and chill. Just before serving, add the ginger ale. Makes approx. 3 pints (1.5 litres)

The Magic Pudding Cookbook 2000 Sydney

Fizzy fruit … bungfoodlin’ fantastic!

You will need: cutting board, 1 large jug, tall glasses; a 1 litre bottle of lemonade; a 1 litre bottle of pineapple juice; ice cubes; 6 fresh strawberries; 4 slices of pineapple

What to do:

1 Wash the strawberries, remove their stalks and dice them. Put them in the jug.

2 Pour the lemonade into the jug until it is 2/3 full. Fill the remainder with juice.

3 Put the ice cubes into the jug.

4 Make a cut on one side of each pineapple ring and decorate the glasses with them (or put them into the jug along with the strawberries like Vivi and Max did)

Thanks for your help making this thirst quenchingly delicious punch Vivi and Max!

Marisa's verdict - "mmmmmmmmm"

Pineapple in Kicker Oatmeal

Jazz Cooks: Portraits and Recipes of the Greats, Bob Young and Al Stankus, photography by Deborah Feingold,1992 USA

Philip Harper, trumpet player: Kicker Oatmeal

¾ cup water; ¾ cup apple juice; 2/3 cup old-fashioned oats; 1 banana, sliced; 2 tblsp raisins; 2 slices canned pineapple, in chunks, or to taste; honey, to taste; 1 tblsp wheat germ, or to taste (I used bran)

In a medium-sized saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Add the apple juice, bring back to a boil, and add the oats. Cook, stirring continuously, for 5 minutes, or until oatmeal is cooked and desired consistency is reached. At the end, add the banana and raisins. Cook for another 30 seconds. Spoon the oatmeal into a deep bowl and stir in the pineapple ad honey. Sprinkle the wheat germ (or bran) over the top.

Philip Harper Quintet - SORCERER OF ANTIQUITY (live at Smalls) 2016