As far as grilled fruit recipes, I have done pineapple, nectarines, peaches and plums. I haven’t tried bananas yet but we’re getting there.
As far as berries, I like to grill blackberry cobbler, for one on the barbecue. By grilling it outdoors you give it a unique taste you cannot duplicate indoors.
When the blackberry season in Oregon comes around, you can pick them to your heart’s content. I will grill one then and give you a blow-by-blow account.
In the meanwhile, one of the great fruits to start out grilling is pineapple. Here is a simple recipe and method of preparing it.
With a sturdy knife trim the top and the bottom so that both ends lay flat. Then remove the outer casing vertically around the meat of the pineapple from top to bottom.
Next, you remove the pineapple itself, again cutting vertically, around the core. You will end up with about ten or twelve slices.
You can also cut the pineapple horizontally, but you have the core in the middle. Some folks prefer to slice it this way.
Place the pineapple slices in a marinating container. Add a generous amount of brown sugar over the top of the pineapple and rub the sugar on all sides of the slices.
The brown sugar interacts with pineapple and many other fruits in a miraculous way. The sugar forms a nice little syrup and marinade and takes fruit to another dimension.
I like to give the brown sugar a little time to mingle. A half hour, or so, covered will suffice. Start the grill. On a gas grill, turn to a high-medium temperature of 350 to 400 degrees.
On a charcoal grill, you may want to shove the coals to one side of the grill and cook on indirect heat. You don’t want either the gas or the charcoal grill too hot.
Spray a little non-stick on the grill to keep the fruit from sticking. You can also rub a little Extra Virgin Olive oil onto the grill.
I like to use a wad of cheesecloth, saturated with oil and rub it onto the grill using a pair of tongs. Be careful of flare-ups.
Place the pineapple slices on the hot grill. Total cooking time shouldn’t be much over ten minutes. If you cut the pineapple vertically, you will have three sides of it to grill.
Make sure that you get grill marks on all three side of the pineapple, turning each slice with a pair of tongs. Be careful when you turn the fruit as you don’t want break it.
Serve the pineapple warm. It makes an excellent dessert. You can even add a little rum to it to give it yet another taste.
I also recommend the same recipe, using brown sugar on other fruits. However, some can be difficult to prepare.
Nectarines, plums and peaches can be extremely difficult to core. Well, they are for me.
Peaches I can halve without destroying them. But, with nectarines and plums I have to core in quarters or eights to be able to trim from the core
When you end up with small slices of fruit, you do not want to put them directly on the grill. You don’t want small chunks of fruit falling through the grill.
For grilling smaller pieces, use a wire mesh grill pan sprayed with a non-stick. And, put the pan directly on the grill.
There are other recipes for grilled fruit, but you will be a little hard pressed to find ones that are any simpler or better.
