How to prepare a pineapple – Jamie Oliver’s Home Cooking Skills

so we’re preparing pineapples and I
guess the most important thing about
fruit before you eat it is that it’s one
so you got to check that it’s right and
the way we always check is if you can
pull a leaf add to the top yeah then
it’s telling you that it’s all nice and
juicy inside there’s going to be a lot
of mess that were cut enough so we’re
going to keep ourselves nice and tidy
and in order by putting it in the bowl
okay so it’s a bit of a thing to tackle
isn’t it
so first off you want to keep it nice
and steady because you’re gonna have to
apply a lot of pressure to cut through
it because it’s really hard so try and
get it as flat on the board as you can
put a nice lighter pressure on then we
take these top up that’s it brilliant
and then get em out the way and then
turn around and you want to cut enough
off the base so that when we stand it up
to cut later you’ve got a nice strong
steady platform for him to sit on so I’m
going to cut about there okay and then
it will sit nice and safe on your board
so now we’re going to take the skin off
so it’s going to sit really nice and
firmly on the board we’re going to start
at the top and we’re going to follow the
shape of the pineapple round with the
knife can you see it’s like curved so
you don’t want to lose all the flesh
because then you’re losing off your
fruit so you keep your knife at a slight
angle and you’re going to soar away and
follow around the shape of the fruit
okay like this
you can go a bit deeper in you see I’ve
got a little bit of flesh on there I
want to be taking away anything that you
don’t fancy having in your mouth so
because that’s all a bit tough you want
to be getting rid of that and then you
just keep going all the way around
keeping your fingers out of the way and
on top keeping it nice and flat on the
board when you’ve got most of it off if
you just go round again now it’s a bit
easier to tackle and the little bits
that we missed or the little bits that
we go fancies in that these bit you can
just shave them off gently so that we’re
not you can see what you do in and
you’re not going to lose your flesh
top job now we’ve got the skin off and
we just left with the flesh the only bit
that’s left that we actually don’t want
to eat is this bit in the middle of the
core which if you can feel the
difference between there and there
that’s quite dry and tough isn’t it so
we’re going to try and get to that in
the easiest way so because we’ve got the
bottom of a pineapple and it’s set nice
and firmly on our board it won’t slip
around so fingers right on top right on
your fingertips keeping them out the way
and then your knife is going to go
straight down the middle so get your
blade in the middle of that core that
you can see in the circle
and you’re pushing your tip down to the
board hit the board and then pull the
heel down freeing that’s in half and
then we can light flat it’s the safest
way keep your fingers out the way and
then in half again point down to the
board and then pull the heel down sit
keep your fingers like this on top nice
and firmly one that’s it
now we’ve exposed our core on every edge
so we can cut it off really easily so
put your pineapple on its side on its on
its biggest face so it sits nice and
snugly on your board that’s it and then
cut that core off so put your knife at
an angle and put through I said
brilliant get rid of that old tough bit
then do the same again that’s it that’s
it
so now we just left with the flesh of
the pineapple we’ve got rid of all this
stuff we don’t want which is quite long
and then we can prepare this however we
want to eat it so keep the tip of your
knife on your board and then you’re just
gonna and then we’ve got nice delicate
little slices of pineapple or if you
feeling like something a bit chunkier
and that’s it’s not too bad is it we’ve
picked a perfect pineapple