My Grilled Fruit Experiments

With summer in full swing, I’ve been seeing mentions of grilled fruit everywhere. I have to admit that if I have grilled fruit before I must not have paid much attention to it, because I don’t recall the experience. With all the buzz I ventured to give it a whirl.

I found a few blogs recently (new to me) that have good information on grilling, both fruit and the normal fare.

The Grillin’ Fools
The Girl’s Guide to Grilling – a Foodbuzz 24x24x24
The Grill Maestro

The freshness of your ingredients is just as important when you are going to grill fruit, it should be free from bruises, mold and not be overripe to the point of falling apart. I had access to some wonderful peaches for my first experiment and the mere thought of tasty grill marks on peaches made my mouth water.

To top the grilled peaches I used 6 oz of goat cheese and 10 mint leaves, which I chopped , mixed in with the cheese. I halved the peaches, removed the pits and grilled them until warm with healthy grill marks on them. Topped with the mint goat cheese they were warm, creamy and had a wonderful combination sweet and savory flavors.

I brought these to my sister-in-law Celeste’s, another big fan of my food and wine exploits, to a pretty good reception. My brother-in-law asked why I was using his grill to cook fruit on Independence Day. As a former marine and veteran, I thanked him for his service in protecting my freedom to do something crazy on the grill. He smiled and took a peach down to see just how crazy I am.

The second dish I grilled was pineapple topped with a honeyed mascarpone cheese and chopped hazelnuts. The pineapple was cut in ½ inch slices, cored using a donut cutter (yes that was a pretty cool idea) and grilled until warm with pretty grill marks. The mascarpone cheese (16oz container) was prepared with 2 Tbsp of honey and 1/3 cup of chopped hazelnuts, mixed well. After the pineapple was grilled we cut each round into 8 pieces and skewered each with a toothpick. Finished with a dollop of the cheese these snacks did not last long. My wife heard people asking, we took them to a backyard BBQ, who made these pineapple snacks. I had a few myself…

If you want to mix it up a bit this summer try grilling some fruit. Similarly, consider grilling vegetables. I have done that quite a bit, but I do want to try the grilled guacamole recipe you can find at the Grillin’ Fools blog for something a little different.

I didn’t end up taking any pictures of these exploits because I was in a rush to get ready to head out to backyard parties both of the days. In retrospect that is a loss because both snacks would have made for great pictures. Both were excellent eats and I had fun making them, so that is something at least!

Cheers!

--Jason