Ananas Rouge

One of the upsides of moving to Guadeloupe is the availability of tropical fruits: pineapples, passion fruit, guavas, etc. Of course, all of these fruits are available at certain markets and stores in New York. But being 'exotic,' they're usually available only certain times of year, and are quite expensive. 'Exotic' is relative, of course. Exotic fruits in Guadeloupe are raspberries, apples, figs. These come shipped in from France and Europe, and the prices reflect the distance traveled. So we eat local, happily.

Above, an ananas rouge that we bought last week. Then, the skin was still dark red, almost purple. You can't tell, since there is no reference, but its a large pineapple. And one with a funny haircut. We cut it up today for lunch. It was delish.

A great dessert that we had first at Les Cocotiers, an excellent restaurant in our neighborhood, inspired a dessert that we make at home whenever we have pineapple: Coconut ice cream served with fresh pineapples, doused with a tablespoon of aged rum. Its an incredibly simple recipe (at least, once you've got the pineapple cut up into pieces...), but just perfect in every way. The coconut ice cream is usually a little too sweet by itself, so the acidity of the pineapple and the alcohol of the rum balance it out. We use the bottle of Brugel that we brought back from our trip to the Dominican Republic, which, M. discovered, is not so great by itself. For guests, we might add some whipped cream and some toasted slivered almonds.