A Lazy Girl´s Guide to November in Lagos

By the Lazy Tigers

Well, we hope everyone had a lovely October. The town was definitely busy and full of visitors, plus lots of old friends returning, and as a bonus, the weather was superb. We are hoping, at the time of writing, that we had a good turnout for Halloween. Our Lazy Witches do get a bit bored casting spells on each other instead of naughty children. That can go terribly wrong.

This month to stretch summer for another little while we are going totally tropical, with three recipes that contain one key ingredient: rum-soaked pineapple. There are lots of reasonably priced pineapples in the shops now, and this is such a versatile starting point for so many dishes – give it a go.

For the rum-soaked pineapple, you must have a large glass jar. One of those tall sealable spaghetti jars would be perfect, or a two-litre Kilner jar or similar from a cookware shop or IKEA. First, peel and chop into chunks a large pineapple. Pour in a whole bottle of cheap white rum and leave it for a couple of days, or if you are desperate, at least overnight. Then make some, or all, of the following.

PORK AND PINEAPPLE KEBABS (SERVES TWO HUNGRY PEOPLE OR FOUR AS A STARTER)

  • 400 grams pork fillet
  • 4 tbsp of any brown sugar
  • 60 ml of cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp of fish sauce
  • A third of your rum-soaked pineapple chunks
  • 1 pepper (any colour) cut into squares
  • 4 spring onions (or any cubed veg will do, mushroom, courgette, etc)
  • Small bunch of coriander (if you like)
  • Rice or pitta to serve

Heat the sugar and vinegar in a pan till it dissolves, add the fish sauce, let this cool. Cut the pork into (mouthful-sized) chunks and mix well. Heat your barbecue or grill and thread four kebabs using alternate pieces of the pork, pineapple, and veg in the usual way. Cook from 5 mins on a barbie to 10 mins under the grill. Sprinkle with coriander and serve with rice or pitta.

Now to use your rum-soaked pineapple in a cake. This recipe is so easy and so economical you have got to make it. If you cannot be bothered cutting up a pineapple and soaking it, you could buy a tin of crushed fruit. We didn’t believe it would work until we tried it.

THREE INGREDIENT PINEAPPLE CAKE (SERVES SIX)

  • 280 grams of self-raising flour
  • 200 grams of white sugar
  • 450 grams of your rum-soaked pineapple very crushed with some juice, or a 440-gram tin of crushed pineapple with all the juice

Mix together the ingredients. Put into a lined springform or loaf tin. Bake at 180 C for anything from 40 to 60 minutes depending on the tin (keep checking after 40) until the mix springs back when touched and moves away from the tin lining.

Our last recipe is a variation on that old reliable summer tropical drink, the Pina Colada. Been there, done that, sang the song (drunkenly). But try this with your rum-soaked concoction.

FROSTY THE PINA COLADA (SERVES TWO)

  • Half of the rum-soaked pineapple crushed up
  • 30 ml of rum
  • 5 scoops of vanilla ice-cream

Mix all the ingredients in a jug and serve in two large glasses.

The beauty of this mixture is that you can use the rum and pineapple together as an ingredient or separately anywhere a recipe needs rum or pineapple. We can imagine it in a pineapple upside-down cake or a salad with chicken, celery, and mayonnaise, or perhaps, best of all, the rum only served with ice and soda water.

Mmmmh, rum, pineapple, barbecue, ice cream; here at London Tiger Coffee, we are keeping the spirit of summer alive to the very last gasp. That is because we are too lazy to start looking through our cupboards and shopping for a winter wardrobe. Pop in and sympathise with us in Rua Marreiros next time you are in town.

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