Pineapple ‘Pa-Rum-Pa-Pum-Pum’ Breakfast Slice Recipe with chilli pineapple, prosciutto crisp, cottage curd, avocado, crab apple and clementine.
This is a beautifully light, healthy and quick start to Christmas morning; something to sate morning hunger and prepare you for the day’s feasting ahead. Spiced, chilli sweet pineapple, earthy fragrant, soft textured avocado, cottage cheese for gentle lactic bite, nuts and cress for crunch, finished off with a zing of zest! I’m serving the dish with my crab apple jelly* to wake up taste-buds and to add extra indulgence.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
– 3 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
– 1 heaped tsp sea salt
– Spices: 1 clove, ½tsp cumin, 1tsp black pepper all freshly ground, 30 gratings of nutmeg and 2tsp chilli flakes
– 2 tbsp sunflower oil
– ½ fresh super-sweet pineapple, peeled and sliced into thin rectangular slabs, about 15 to 20mm thick, then into triangular wedges
– 4 thin slices of prosciutto or 8 slices of pancetta
– 1 ripe avocado, peeled and cut into 4 through its poles
– 8 tbsp cottage cheese
– 1 handful blanched almonds, roughly chopped
– Coriander, mustard and salad cress
– Zest of one clementine
Method:
1. Set your grill to high and turn your oven to 200˚C, Gas mark 6.
2. Mix the sugar, salt, spices and oil together. Cut the pineapple slabs into even, generous wedges then place them on a plate and coat in the spiced sugar mix. Set aside.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment, place the prosciutto on then cover with a second sheet of paper and then another baking tray, to sandwich the ham slices and so keep them flat during cooking.
4. Pop into the oven for 15 minutes, then remove the trays and carefully place the prosciutto slices on a cooling rack. Set aside to cool and crisp completely.
5. Line a grill pan with a sheet of foil, pop in the wire rack, place the spiced slices of pineapple on the rack and place under the grill for 5 to 8 minutes, then turn over and grill for another 5 minutes until the spice glaze and pineapple edges just begin to catch and char. Set aside.
Assembly:
Make sure you have all ingredient elements together and to-hand on your work-top. On a room temperature plate, pop a slice of pineapple to one side, then an avocado quarter on top, next a couple tablespoons of cottage cheese. Sprinkle with the almonds, the cresses, then carefully rest a thin slice of crisp prosciutto leaning against it. Give it all a quick grating of Clementine zest and nutmeg. Pop on a neat dollop of my crab apple jelly on the free side of the plate (you can use redcurrant jelly as an alternative). Yum! Serve immediately with a good cup of coffee, or (as in our household) a very welcome glass of Christmas bucks fizz, sláinte!
*Crab Apple Jelly
Makes about 4 x 12oz jam jars worth
Ingredients:
– 1.2 kg crab apples, though you can use windfall cooking apples, slightly unripe ones
– Cold water
– Spice: ½ star anise, ½ a nutmeg, 1 tsp coriander seeds, ½ tsp white pepper corns all left whole
– 2 blackberries, they give the jelly a wonderful, soft colour
– Golden granulated sugar
Method:
1. Cut the apples roughly into quarters, pop them into a large saucepan, cover with water, about 1.5 litres, add the whole spices , blackberries, place on a high heat and let them bubble away.
2. After about 20 to 30 minutes, when the apples have collapsed completely, take off the heat, give the pulp a quick stir, pour and scrape all the contents into a jelly bag or a large square of muslin cloth, gather up the corners, securely suspend it above a large bowl and leave to drip for 8 hours or overnight. Don’t be tempted to squeeze the bag as you’ll end up with a cloudy jam.
3. The next morning, pour the juice into a measuring jug, note the total volume of liquid, then decant into a wide mouthed, heavy bottomed pan or preserving pan. Discard the pulp and spices.
4. Preheat your oven to 140°C, gas mark 1.
5. For every 600ml of juice add 450g of sugar to a metal or ovenproof bowl and pop into the oven to warm through.
6. Place the pan on a medium high heat, pour in the warm sugar, stir to dissolve, then turn up the heat and be sure not to stir anymore, allow to bubble for about 35 to 40 minutes, then check to see if it wrinkles when a teaspoonful is placed onto a chilled saucer.
7. Take off the heat and pour through a jam funnel into the jars. This jelly will keep in your cupboard for at least 6 months.
Arun Kapil is a Spice Specialist and chef. Honing his skills at Ballymaloe, and kitchens in London, Arun’s cooking as with his presenting has an easy uncomplicated style. Settling in Ireland’s food capital, Co Cork in 2004, Arun set-up his highly regarded and award winning spice company Green Saffron in 2007. Green Saffron sources spices direct from farms in India, ‘grading’ them in their unit at Moradabad just outside Delhi, before shipping them over to Cork. Arun has appeared on RTE’s ‘Today with Maura and Daithi’, TV3’s ‘Late Lunch Live , alongside Richard Corrigan on Channel 4’s Cookery School, and has featured in programmes with Rachel Allen, Donal Skehan and Market Kitchen, UKTV and ‘Pies and Puds’ with Paul Hollywood on BBC1. Arun contributes regularly to various Irish national radio channels and has just published his first cookbook, ‘Fresh Spice’ through Pavilion, UK with co-edition in the US through Sterling Gourmet. He has also just received the ‘green light’ his spice TV series due to air in 2016 through RTE.
Green Saffron Arun Kapil