Tasty Supper with a Salsify Salad and for Pudding Roasted Pineapple with French Coconut Macaroons

 This sounds like an elaborate supper, but it was mainly drawing from things I had in the fridge.  

At the same time as I bought the pineapple I also picked up another bargain: four long roots of Salsify.  I  used to love this when I was little, and as if by magic my father used to produce a few roots which he and I would savour together as a starter with a little oil and vinegar, salt and pepper.  I couldn't quite remember how to cook it, and went to my trusted source Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book. My copy dates back to 1979 when I started my vegetable garden.  She writes well about each vegetable in turn and gives background on their history, how to prepare the vegetables and several recipes for each one. I went with her method of washing off them thoroughly then cooking them in as long pieces as possible.  I cut each root into two to fit into the pan, and then when tender whilst still hot, but putting them under the tap so as not to burn myself, found the skins slipped off easily. As they cooled the skin became more difficult to remove.  They were immediately dressed with lemon juice and olive oil.  We had some warm the first day, but last night, for the quick supper, it was simply a cold breast of chicken with some garnish of garden lettuce and salsify. 

I went on to add a few black olives, and use up a little brown rice left in the fridge by sauteing first a red onions and adding in the rice, using walnut oil that gave a nice flavour.  A little pomegranate molasses was added to give a fruity finish over the salify.

To follow with goat's yogurt for Monsieur, and Sheep's yogurt pour moi, which we have every evening, we used up the last of the roasted pineapple.

With the last of bargain pineapples I looked for a new 'roasted pineapple' recipe on line and came across Jill Colonna's blog called Mad about Macarons.  By coincidence I did have her book but had passed it to a neighbour so that she and her grand daughter could have some 'bake together time'. I've printed off her recipe and really did follow it exactly this time including the cayenne powder. 

I chose not to remove the core, as it is that part that contains the highest concentration of bromelain, and we are used to it.  As it was a large pineapple the roasted slices yielded eight portions, which made this a very economical desert, especially as I picked up the eight perfect pineapples for £2 the lot.  This size costs £2 each in Waitrose!  

I also made from the one egg white hanging around in the fridge a half batch of Jill's Coconut Macaroons.  Even on day three having been stored in a sealed container, they were delicious and complement the roasted pineapples perfectly.