Pineapple Salad
Choosing the pineapple at the correct level of ripeness and peeling it correctly is critical to the success of this salad.
How to choose a pineapple
Most pineapple may not ripen very well if picked green. I have detailed below some guidelines to follow to assist you in picking a good to eat pineapple.
- Look for a crisp green crown indicating freshness and a golden skin indicating ripeness. Hold the pineapple. Don’t be deterred by this fruit’s prickly exterior. Pull off one of the middle leaves from the crown. If it comes off with only a slight resistance, the pineapple is good to go.
- Smell the pineapple from the bottom to get the most accurate aroma. The pineapple must smell sweet and fresh. If you detect an odour that suggests fermentation or there is no sweetness present, skip that pineapple.
- Take a good look at the pineapple. Some green on the sides of a pineapple is OK, but the entire pineapple should not be green. A good pineapple is typically golden on the bottom. Avoid pineapples with visible bruising.
- You should next feel the pineapple. It should be firm and heavy for its size. It will give a little to firm pressure. If the pineapple feels soft and mushy, then it is overripe.
Peeling the pineapple
There are many ways to peel a pineapple and I have detailed below my preferred way:
- Thoroughly wash pineapple
- Lay the pineapple on its side on a cutting board and hold it firmly. Using a sharp knife cut off the crown at a point about 2 cm below the crown and discard. Next, cut off the bottom of the pineapple by making a cut about 2cm from the bottom.
- Stand the pineapple upright on your cutting board and cut down the sides to remove the skin. Don’t worry about cutting deep enough to remove the eyes. Just remove the skin. Slice the skin off the sides, going from top to bottom. Cut as thinly as possible. Leave as much flesh as you can remaining on the pineapple; the sweetest part of the pineapple is the most outer flesh. Following the contour of the fruit will help prevent loss of flesh where the pineapple bulges in the middle. Do not remove the eyes (brown spots) while cutting away the skin, or you will lose too much of the good flesh.
- The third step is to remove the eyes of the pineapple. The eye spots all line up in diagonal rows on the pineapple. Cut a V-shaped groove along the diagonal line to remove each set of eye spots. The remaining flesh is ready for cutting now. You will lose a bit more of the good pineapple flesh by removing the eyes this way, but it takes significantly less time than removing each eye one by one. You may decide not to cut the grove in the pineapple but peel a bit deeper. You will loose some good flesh but it will be quicker.
Storing ripe cut pineapple
Please note that cut pineapple does turn brown. This means that it is oxidizing, as the flesh is exposed to air. To slow down this browning process, coat the cut pieces with lemon juice; the ascorbic acid in the lemon juice helps to slow the oxidization. Ripe cut pineapple will keep at room temperature for about two days or place the lemon-coated pineapple slices into an airtight container and keep in the refrigerator. Use within four days. Cut pineapple can also be frozen, during which time it will not turn brown. Of course, the best way to prevent the oxidization is to eat the pineapple straight after you’ve cut it!
Be more Creative
To make the salad interesting and colourful, you can add grated pawpaw to it. For the salad the pawpaw cannot be too ripe. It has to be half-ripe ripe and still crunchy. In Creole we call it papay zon. The added texture and the combination of the sweetness of the pawpaw with the sweetish tartness of the pineapple create a totally different flavour dimension.
Pineapple and Pawpaw Salad
Most Seychellois add some chilli to the salad. I suggest you chop your chilli very fine instead of pounding it. The flavour will be cleaner.
Here is the recipe for Pineapple Salad – Salad zannannan
This salad , one of the sweet and savoury salad made from ripe and half-ripe fruits, is a typical Creole salad that was traditionally eaten in the afternoon for afternoon tea in the absence of cakes and cookies. It was and is still rarely eaten as a dessert.
- 1 ripe pineapple -medium size
- 1/4 red onion -thinly sliced
- 3 tbsp sugar (may vary depending on sweetness of the fruit)
- juice 1/2 lemon
- ¼ tsp salt (may vary depending on sourness of the fruit)
- ¼ tsp cracked black pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 chopped chilli- bird's eye ( or one goat chilli) (optional)
- 1 tsp vinegar
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Peel pineapple as discussed in the post, wash and pat dry
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Place the whole peeled pineapple on its side on the cutting board.
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Make incisions lengthwise from top to bottom about 1 ½ cm apart. The incisons have to reach the core, but do not cut across the core. Incise the whole pineapple.
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Once the incisions have been made around the whole pineapple. Make other incisions cross-wise around the pineapple at around 1 ½ cm interval from right to left.
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Once all fruit has been incised, place it upright and use your knife to slice vertically into the fruit again at around 1 ½ cm from the outside layer of the fruit. This should give you rough cubes of about 1 ½ cm. Cut through the whole fruit except the core, which, although can be eaten, is usually discarded.
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Place the cubed pineapple in a stainless or ceramic bowl and clean all working surfaces.
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In another small bowl, prepare a dressing by adding the sliced onions, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, cracked pepper and sugar and mix thoroughly
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Pour the sweet and salty dressing into the pineapple and mix with a spoon.
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Let rest for 30 minutes to allow all flavours to blend.
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Serve at room temperature or chilled
- If the pineapple a bit too sour you may decide to add extra sugar or vice versa if it is too sweet. Adding salt will also make the pineapple taste sweeter !
- To make the salad interesting and colourful, you can add grated pawpaw to it. For the salad the pawpaw cannot be too ripe. It has to be half-ripe ripe and still crunchy. In Creole we call it papay zon. The added texture and the combination of the sweetness of the pawpaw with the sweetish tartness of the pineapple create a totally different flavour dimension.
- Most Seychellois add some chilli to the salad. I suggest you chop your chilli very fine instead of pounding it. The flavour will be cleaner.
- If you want to reduce the sting of the onion, you may decide to soften the onion in some slightly salted water first before adding it to the salad.
Did you make this recipe?
I hope you will enjoy preparing this dish. Please let me know how it turned out for you. If you have a different version of the recipe or have related questions, please leave your comments below.
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