Pineapple Princesses began as a tribute to Ruby Borrowdale, the home economist behind the 'Golden Circle Tropical Recipe Book' tested in the Golden Circle kitchen and modified and updated in the Pineapple Princesses' test kitchens.
As Ruby said "pineapple is a versatile food" . . .
no fat, high in vitamin C and full of the flavour of Queensland sunshine. The blog continues as more and more pineapple recipes are discovered from around the world.
The
Cuisine of the South Pacific, Gwen Skinner, Photography by Michael
Willison, 1983 New Zealand, Photo of Gwen Skinner by Derek Hunt
“The
South Pacific conjures up visions of a paradise of waving coconut
palms, coral reefs, white sands, and a tropical climate. It has all
of those things, but it also has a wide geographical and cultural
diversity and not the least of its splendours is its food."
Solomon
Islands – Chicken Curry with Fruit and Nuts
1
large boiling chicken; 5 cups water; 1 large onion, sliced; 1 cup
coconut milk (½ coconut cream, ½ water) or cow's milk; 1 tsp salt;
¼ tsp pepper; 2 tsp curry powder; 3 tblsp cornflour; hot cooked
rice; 4 eggs, hard boiled and sliced; 2 bananas, sliced with lemon
juice squeezed over; 1 cup fresh pineapple pieces; ½ cup roasted
peanuts, chopped; ½ cup fresh coconut, grated
Bring
the chicken to the boil in water with onion, then simmer until
tender. Remove chicken and cut meat into serving pieces. Discard
bones, etc. Strain stock which will have reduced to about 2 cups. Add
milk, salt, pepper and curry powder to stock. Bring to the boil,
thicken with cornflour mixed in a little water, cook gently for a few
minutes, just under boiling point if coconut cream is used, then add
chicken pieces.
Pour
chicken over hot rice in shallow serving dish. Arrange sliced eggs,
sliced bananas and pineapple chunks on top. Sprinkle with peanuts and
coconut.
Dasom Lee and Woogon Park enjoyed our Solomon Islands chicken curry as much as we enjoyed the Korean tteokbokbi that they cooked for us. Do visit us again!
Samoa
– Polynesian Sweet and Sour Chicken
Sweet
and Sour Sauce
½
cup vinegar; 1 cup pineapple juice; ½ cup tomato sauce (ketchup); ¼
cup brown sugar; 2 tblsp cornflour; water
Bring
first four ingredients to the boil. Mix cornflour with a little water
and stir into sauce to thicken.
4
chicken breasts; 4 chicken legs; 2 X 425g cans of fruit: peaches,
apricots, guavas, mixed etc; ¼ cup soya sauce; 1 tsp crushed garlic
Preheat
oven to 180°C.
Pat chicken pieces dry, place skin side up in a baking pan. Drain
fruit and reserve syrup. Mix syrup with soya sauce and garlic, pour
over chicken and bake uncovered, basting the chicken and turning
pieces until all are golden brown, about an hour. Remove chicken to
warming drawer.
Add
Sweet and Sour Sauce to baking pan liquid, bring to the boil over
medium heat, and cook until the liquid thicken and reduces to about 2
cups. Pour this over the chicken pieces, cover with foil, and
refrigerate several hours or overnight.
Bake
chicken and sauce, uncovered, in 180°C
oven for 30 minutes. Add fruit to dish and baste often while cooking
a further 30 minutes.
New
Zealand – Candied Kumara
2-3
large kumaras; 1 tsp bacon dripping; ½ cup pineapple juice; 1 cup
pineapple pieces; 1 tblsp brown sugar; 1 tsp vinegar; 1 tspn
cornflour; ½ cup water; ¼ tsp nutmeg
Peel,
wash and boil the kumaras in salted water for 15 minutes. Drain, cut
lengthwise and place with the flat side up in a roasting dish. Put
juice, pineapple pieces, sugar and vinegar in a pot, mix cornflour
and water together then add. Simmer, stirring, for 3-4 minutes until
thickened. Pour sauce over the kumaras and bake in a medium oven 10
minutes, turning them over after 5 minutes.
Sprinkle
with nutmeg and cook a little longer. Serve with roast wild pork or
pork chops.
The Pineapple Princesses recently enjoyed the truly fabulous World of Wearable Art in Wellington, New Zealand. We recommend you save all your pennies and go one year as it is a spectacular event of inspiring wearable art and theatre. When visiting our friend Jenny in Dunedin I had a sneaky poke around her kitchen in the hope of finding a New Zealand retro recipe for pineapple and lo and behold - Basic New Zealand
Cookbook by Eleanor M. Gray, Dunedin 1978
Pineapple and Nut
Loaf
2 cups sifted flour, ½ cup sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 tblspn
baking powder, ½ cup chopped nuts, 1 medium egg, 1 cup milk, 50g melted butter,
¼ cup well drained crushed pineapple (cut any large pieces of pineapple)
Preheat the oven (180°C). Grease a medium to large loaf tine
with a small amount of butter. Sift the dry ingredients into a medium bowl.
Stir in the nuts. Beat the egg with a rotary beater; add the milk and butter;
beat to mix. Make a ‘well’ in the centre of the dry ingredients; pour the
liquid ingredients into the ‘well’; stir quickly with a wooden spoon until the
dry ingredients are just dampened and the mixture is still lumpy, Turn into the
prepared loaf tin; spread carefully to the corners. Bake in a moderate
oven(180°C) for 45 to 60 minutes until golden brown and a cake tester inserted
in the centre of the loaf comes out clean. Stand for 2 to 3 minutes. Loosen the
loaf from the sides of the tin with a spatula or knife. Turn onto a cake
cooler. Serve cold; leave for 24 hours before slicing if possible. Makes 1
medium to large loaf.
Beautiful!
A delicious Pina Colada Shake enjoyed on Lambton Quay, Wellington!
Finally last night
I made and served the Pineapple Pavlova, I had friends over for dinner. It was delicious of course.
I made a three egg
white/ ¾ cup sugar pavlova shell the evening before, left it in the oven to
cool slowly overnight and in the morning quickly boxed it up before I turned on
the evaporative coolers, which would have made it very soggy. (We have had very warm weather, over 40
degrees yesterday). I made the pineapple filling according to Ruby’s
recipe. However, it was too bland and
too pale so I added some lemon juice and some yellow colouring. The filling stored OK in the fridge under
cling wrap for a couple of hours, I was fearful it would be gluggy but it was
fine. Served with some whipped cream on
top, I could have been more generous with the cream but I was conscious of our
post-Christmas diets, Ann.
Pineapple Pavlova.
440g can Golden Circle Crushed Pineapple, 2 tblspns
cornflour or arrowroot, and your favourite recipe for a 3 or 4 egg Pavlova.
Spoon Pavlova on baking tray in shape of pie shell. Bake
until firm in slow oven. Cool. Empty pineapple into saucepan and heat to
boiling. Thicken with cornflour or arrowroot. Cool, then spoon into meringue
shell. Serve with cream or ice cream.
A controversy!
Apparently, both New Zealand and Australia claim to have invented the delicious dessert, the Pavlova. Researchers ultimately decided that it was first created in New Zealand.
A national dish in both countries it was named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova in Wellington, New Zealand in 1926 and in Perth, Western Australia in 1935. Here is Anna Pavlova (1881-1931) in her signature ballet, The Dying Swan, choreographed by Mikhail Fokine in 1905.
The World's Largest Pavlova.
" In August 2010, chef Aaron Campbell displayed a 50 square
metre rugby-themed pavlova, with the Bledisloe Cup in the centre, in the
ChristChurch Cathedral in Christchurch, to raise money for the official charity
of the All Blacks.”
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