Sous Vide Infused Pineapple | Recipe by sousvidetools.com

Sous Vide Vanilla Rum Infused Pineapple, Pineapple Jelly, Eccles Cake Ice Cream

COOK TIME: 2 hours
PREP TIME: 2 Hours
DIFFICULTY: Medium
SERVES: 4

Ingredients

1 pineapple, large
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
4 tsp muscovado sugar
50ml of rum
1 lime, juiced

Eccles cake ice cream

350g of milk
150g of cream
25g of glucose
1 1/2 vanilla pods, seeds scraped
50g of milk powder
80g of egg yolk
130g of sugar
100g of Eccles cake, crushed

Pineapple jelly

300g of pineapple juice, good quality
10g of sugar
1 lime, juiced
1 1/2 gelatine leaves, soaked in cold water until soft

Currant purée

150g of currants
200ml of water
1 lime, juiced
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped

Crumble

320g of plain flour
200g of butter, diced
200g of caster sugar

Sugar pull

200g of fondant sugar
40ml of glucose syrup

Pineapple carpaccio

100ml of stock syrup
1 lime, juiced
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped

Equipment

EQUIPMENT

Whisk
Ice Cream Machine
Blender
Sous Vide Water Bath
Chamber Sealer
Vacuum Sealer Bags

Method

Recipe courtesy of chef Nigel Haworth from www.greatbritishchefs.com

METHOD

To make the Eccles cake ice cream, combine the milk, cream, glucose, vanilla seeds and milk powder in a saucepan over a medium heat. Place the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and beat with a whisk until smooth.
When the milk mixture reaches the boil, whisk a little at a time into the egg yolks until it has all been added. Transfer the custard mixture back to the saucepan and heat until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Strain the custard through a fine sieve, then cool in a bowl over ice.
Pour the cooled custard into an ice cream machine and leave to churn. Once churned, stir in the crushed Eccles cake, then store in the freezer until required.
Next, prepare the pineapple jelly. In a saucepan, mix together the pineapple juice, lime juice and sugar. Heat until the mixture boils, then add the softened gelatine, whisking to dissolve. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve and pour into a shallow container, creating a layer approximately 1cm deep. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to set the jelly.
For the currant purée, mix together the currants, water, lime juice and vanilla seeds in a large saucepan and place over a high heat. When the mixture starts to boil, turn down the heat and cook, simmering gently, for 5 minutes.
Empty the saucepan into a blender and pulse until puréed. If necessary, add a splash of water to loosen the mixture. Press the purée through a fine sieve, then transfer it to a squeezy bottle and set aside until ready to serve.
Preheat the oven to a temperature of 180⁰C/gas mark 4.
To make the crumble, place the flour and butter in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then add the sugar and mix well.
Spread the crumble evenly over a baking tray and place in the oven. Cook for 15 minutes or until golden. Set aside to cool. Once cool, crush into a fine crumble.
For the sugar pull, place the sugar and glucose syrup in a saucepan over a high heat. When the temperature of the sugar reaches 121⁰C, take the pan off the heat and immediately plunge the base into cold water to halt the cooking process.
Empty the saucepan onto a silicone mat. Leave the sugar to cool a little, then tease it out into long thin strands, allowing them to twist and coil into different shapes.
Preheat the water bath to a temperature of 85⁰C.
To make the roasted pineapple, slice off the top and bottom of the fruit, then remove the skin with a sharp knife. Follow the contours of the pineapple with the blade to ensure that it keeps its shape.
Halve the pineapple lengthways. Set one half aside for the carpaccio. Slice the remaining half into 4 equal segments and remove the core from each one.
Using a chamber sealer, seal the pineapple segments in a vacuum bag with the vanilla, sugar, rum and lime juice. Place the bag in the water bath and leave to cook for 25 minutes.
Once cooked, unseal the vacuum bag and drain the liquid into a saucepan, reserving the pineapple. To make a glaze, bring the liquid to the boil and simmer until reduced to a syrup consistency. Coat the pineapple segments with the glaze and set aside until required.
Next, prepare the carpaccio. Mix together the stock syrup, lime juice and vanilla seeds and heat in a saucepan until boiling, then set aside to cool.
With a sharp knife, carefully cut 4 thin slivers of pineapple from the reserved half of the fruit.
Add the pineapple slivers to the pan with the cool stock syrup and leave for 5 minutes to marinate.
To serve, position a pineapple segment in the centre of each plate. Arrange a spoonful of jelly, a dot of currant purée and a piece of carpaccio in a line on one side of the segment, scatter the crumble and place a scoop of ice cream on the other side, then top with a sugar pull to finish the dessert.

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Post by Chris Holland

Our Chef Director Chris Holland worked as Head Chef at the prestigious Alderley Edge hotel before joining us. He has a passion for using the best produce and never compromises on quality. Author of our best selling book Sous Vide The Art of Precision Cooking, Chris is a expert on the sous vide technique.During the later part of my school days at Wardle High School Rochdale I always wanted to be a chef . I knew from the very start that my path to work was never going to be academic it was always going to be something practical and hands on.

As a young boy growing up I was inspired to cook with my Grandma who was and still is an inspiration to me . I have memories of helping make the cakes that she always had made for visitors and family alike . She made the most amazing cakes and I loved nothing more than eating the sweet raw cake batter straight from the bowl . We used to fight over who got to lick the bowl/spoon after the cakes were made. My grandma’s philosophy for cooking even on a shoe string budget was always to use fresh and seasonal ingredients either home grown or bought from the market.

School was somewhat of a drag for me as I was itching to learn to become a chef.

I started at Hopwood Hall college as a chef and instantly fell in love with it .To me it was the only real time I excelled in something and this inspired me to really get my head down and put in the hard work. College was the first time I really excelled in something and gave me the opportunity to laugh at the teachers who said I would never make something of my life!!!!

During the three years at college I also took on a part time position in a local hotel working the bar and restaurant first and then the kitchen. These were great days and gave me the opportunity to see how the industry ticks. I learnt a lot from those days both good and bad !! But I have to say I was itching to work only in the kitchen but it was a good insight into the catering world .

After completing college I moved away from Rochdale for a full time roll at one of Cheshire’s most talked about Hotel restaurants The Stanneylands Hotel. This was the school of hard knocks for me as I quickly realised that although excelling at college meant nothing in “The Real World”.

I loved every minute of the 18 hour days 6 days a week on minimum wage . Although difficult I feel that without this grounding I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. After 18 months of hard graft I left Stanneylands and went with the Head chef to open a fine dining restaurant at Mere Golf and Country Club. The opportunity to work alongside Matthew Barrett was too good to turn down. I learnt so much from the ex-Ritz chef and working in a much slower paced role helped me develop a much better understanding of how to organise and run a kitchen. We were a very small team and teamwork was and still is the only way to go for me.

After 2 years at Mere I got the opportunity to go into The Alderley Edge Hotel as Junior Souschef. The Early days at the Edge were all about learning new styles of cuising which is invaluable in any role as a chef. I got the opportunity to grow and learn all aspects of every section which was inspiring . I was offered the opportunity at the age of 29 (2004) to take the role of head chef. For me this was when I really started to develop my own style of food.

After 9 years at the top winning Cheshire restaurant of the year , Chef of the Year and appearing on GBM amongst many highlights including cooking for many celebrities and famous people I decided to move on into development with Sousvidetools.

The main inspiration for this was to train and educate people . I always had a great passion for education but could never really see myself at a college . The job is super rewarding and I am proud to say we have become the leading light in sous-vide education in the UK . This is something I am very proud of . Food is my biggest passion and this is what keeps me interested the most . I love to travel and try out other countries cuisines. I am constantly inspired by ingredients and the pursuit of getting the best out of them without destroying their natural flavour .It is super important to me to continue to try and be at the forefront of the food scene this is what inspire me and the team to keep driving forward .

Technology is now widely used in the industry and I am super proud to say we have been a big part of spreading that message.

I am very lucky to be in the position I am and the drive to constantly improve our training and links to the next generation of young budding hospitality chefs.

TI feel that my experience over the last 25 years really enables me to get close and educate the “next generation” of chefs .

The industry which I love is really struggling to bring through new recruits and if I can help that process I will be immensely proud.

The food seen in the Uk has improved dramatically over the last ten years and I feel this will continue with the correct education. What happens next only fate will tell us...

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