Salt baked pineapple and pineapple purée by Sid Sahrawat

Preparation Time: 20 minutes, 1 hour resting

Cooking Time: 2 hours

Serves: 8

Ingredients

Salt baked pineapple
1 pineapple, whole and unpeeled
600 g fine salt 
100 g egg white 

Pineapple puree
1 pineapple 
1 vanilla pod
100 ml water
50 g caster sugar 

Garnishes
Baby coriander or flowers
Vanilla ice-cream

Method

Salt baked pineapple preparation:
Preheat oven on Hot air to 185°C. Combine the salt and egg white in a bowl and thoroughly stir until a paste forms. Line a small baking tray with baking paper. Cover the pineapple with the salt mixture ensuring there are no gaps in the crust. Bake for 2 hours. Allow the pineapple to cool for 1 hour before removing the salt crust.

Pineapple puree preparation:
Peel, core and dice the pineapple. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod, combine the pineapple, vanilla, water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil and reduce to medium heat for 30- 40 minutes or until pineapple is tender. Drain and reserve the cooking liquid and blitz the pineapple into a purée adding the reserved liquid to adjust the consistency of the purée. Refrigerate puree until required.

To finish:
Peel the pineapple and then cut the pineapple in quarters lengthwise. Remove core and then cut each quarter into 4 slices. Place 2 slices of pineapple on each serving plate. Next place a few spoons of the pineapple purée and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Garnish with some baby coriander or flowers.