You may remember that I posted some time ago a yogurt and pineapple recipe. A lot of people asked me if that was canned pineapple or not. To answer the question for everybody: it was fresh from the market and I had the chance to play with it a bit!
So I made this step by step tutorial for you about how to peel and cut pineapples that covers the entire process from buying to eating.
The first thing you need to do is to check if the fruit is ripe. You can do this by plucking one of the leaves. If it opposes resistance it is not ripe enough.
The second thing you need to do is to let the pineapple rest on its side for 20 to 30 minutes before you cut it. By doing this you ensure the sugars are distributed evenly in the fruit. When I first heard about this thing I didn’t believe it, so I went to the market, bought a pineapple, left it standing with the leaves up for a while and guess what? The bottom part was extra sweet, while the top part was lacking taste. Bear this one in mind.
So by now you should have the perfect fruit ready to be peeled and cut. Take a big sharp knife, lay the pineapple on its side and cut about half an inch to one inch from the top and bottom.
Place the fruit on its base and cut the peel away from top to bottom. You would be tempted to cut thick slices in order to get rid of the “eyes” of the pineapple, but by doing this you will end up cutting away too much fruit. Luckily there is a way around this problem.
Take your knife and cut out the “eyes” in a v-shape trench that spirals around the pineapple.
I really like this method, because not only you save a lot of the juicy fruit, but the pineapple also looks pretty cool.
When you’re done with the small trenches, slice the pineapple into half an inch / one centimeter pieces. If you don’t like the middle part, which is a bit harder and doesn’t have that strong sweet taste like the rest, carefully cut it out with the tip of your knife.
The rest is easy. Start by cutting half a centimeter slices, then turn them around and cut again. You will end up with beautiful little pineapple cubes.
