Spiced Pineapple

Generally, I don't 'do' cooked fruit, excepting poached plums and other stone fruit, or if it's contained in pastry. Having a pineapple that desperately needed eating, I considered re-making some char siu pineapple buns from the wonderful Sunflower's Food Galore blog, but whilst perusing, I came across this recipe. It appealed to me, as I wasn't in the mood for complicated cooking, and I also have a slight allergy to fresh pineapple. It's only very mild- it makes my skin prickle and sting slightly,  but I'll put up with the discomfort rather than go without.

My version is very, very similar. I didn't use chilli, as I had been eating this for dinner. After a day in the fridge the chilli flavours were starting to come through, and I wanted something that tasted different. I did however use peppercorns for a touch of heat. I also decided to use palm sugar instead, as I love it's honeyed sweetness. If you can get hold of coconut ice cream to serve it with, you have a really easy summer pudding. Vanilla would be great too.

Ingredients
180ml water
3 slices of ginger root
3 cardomom pods
2 star anise
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
3 cloves
1 stick cassia bark
1 large pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into chinks
3 tbsp palm sugar
1 lime
pinch salt

Method
Put the water, whole spices and ginger slices into a saucepan. Pare a strip of lime zest off the fruit, and add that to the pan. Simmer over a medium heat for around 10 minutes until the water is fragrant.

Add the pineapple, palm sugar and salt, and squeeze in the juice from the lime. Put back on the heat, and cook for another 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool, serve chilled. Make sure you remove the ginger slices, you don't want to mistakenly bite into one of them.