Once upon a time, on a grill not too far away, we experienced enlightenment after dropping fleshy fruit on a hot grill, and what has quickly become our favorite application is blueberry (or blackberry or honey mead or muscadine, etc) wine-soaked pineapple slices on the grill, topped (or bottomed) with your favorite creamed ice. Here’s how we do it:
- Get a big pineapple and skin it down. This doesn’t work as well with pre-sliced, canned pineapples, but if you must …
- Cut the pineapple into about 3/4″ slices, and lay them out on the cutting board or cookie sheet.
- Here’s where you can get a little fancy with it … take a small cookie cutter … can be a plain circle or a shape to theme the event.
- Press the cookie cutter around the center of each slice, removing the core of the pineapple.
- Next, place all the slices in a dish or bowl (stacking is OK) and pour enough of your selected berry wine to cover all slices. Set that aside for at least an hour if you can … if not, 20 minutes minimum.
- When it’s time to start grilling, preheat your grill on high heat.
- Pour the wine marinade through a strainer into a sauce pan for later use, and pat-dry the pineapple slices.
- Put your pan/pot with the remaining wine marinade on the stove with 1/2 cup of sugar and bring to a boil. Stir frequently, and reduce the heat to simmer and create a simple syrup.
- Now, take your pineapple slices to the hot grill and arrange them on the grates.
- Wait 2 minutes then give each slice a 1/4 rotation. Wait 2 minutes then turn each slice over. Wait 2 minutes then give each slice a 1/4 rotation. Wait 2 minutes.
At this point, your pineapple slices should be nice and cooked with some char marks and caramelization. Pull them off the grill, and serve with a couple of scoops of ice cream each and drizzled with the berry wine syrup. Hit it with a little brown sugar to top, and you’ve got a great finishing dish that will send your guests into amazing wonder.
