Toasted Pineapple !

I have always loved pineapple. I was introduced to it in my teenage years but only pieces from a can. After I was married and experimented with food in my kitchen, we started having raw, fresh bought pineapple. But we usually had to put it in a sugar solution or add cheese.

Else the raw pineapple would give me a bad throat leading to flu sometimes. But when out eating at Barbecue Nation with my father perhaps a couple years ago, we were served with lots of baked pineapple smeared with oil, salt and red chilly. It was va-va-voom !

Now we bake cut pineapple pieces in our oven regularly - no oil, but with some salt and chilly smeared on it. 7-8 minutes in the oven is enough.

Apparently, there are tremendous benefits from eating pineapple : https:/ including for asthma, cancer, blood pressure and diabetes.

On sharing the above information on whatsapp with friends, the following exchanges were interesting.. Friend 1 : 'Try grilling it ; you will love it more.' Me : 'Smile.. well the oven has the heating rod on above and below. That setting in my oven is called 'toast'.'

Friend 2 : 'Yeah you can do it in a pan too. If it’s a bit tart, few sprinkles of sugar gives nice caramelising and smokiness. Oven is more like cooking through and pan depending on heat is either cooking through or just charting and caramelisation.' Me : 'Ah !'

Friend 3 : 'Pineapple is a great food all round- like papaya it has a good digestive enzyme and it's great for metabolism. But like you I have some difficulties with it. It's almost always too tart for me and causes mouth ulcers, rashes, sore throat, tummy ache, etc.

It's the reason I love pineapple on pizza because its one of the few times I can eat it. But your idea of baking it is interesting and I will try it when I get back to Oz. When we were in Egypt many years ago, the hotel had fantastic breakfast buffets including lots of pineapple.

To my delight, the pineapple was uniformly so sweet that I had no difficulty eating it at all and ate lots every day. Have never encountered pineapple like that since even though Queensland is a big pineapple growing state in Australia.'

Me : 'Yes.. such sweet pineapple in india is only from Kerala in my experience.. no problem eating it raw there !' Friend 4 : 'But cooking fruits spoils vitamins.' Me : 'Not necessarily, as these links would show you : here, and here.

I think toasting for 7-8 minutes would deliver only as much heat as steaming for a few minutes so loss of nutrients should be minimal.
Besides, vegetables too lose some nutrients in cooking, while gaining some others. But we do cook them, dont we ?

Lastly, I would fall sick if I had raw pineapple in Delhi (though it is fine for me in Kerala). So I have no other way to eat it !'