Pineapple Li Hing Mui Shave Ice

Li Hing Mui is an acquired taste. It is a Hawaiian confection of salty dried plums which have be crushed to a powder and added to sugar. Hawaiians put Li Hing Mui on almost anything! When I was living in Hawaii, one of my favorite ways to have it was on fresh pineapple. The sweetness of the pineapple is brought out and creates a wonderful contrast to the saltiness of the Li Hing Mui. My cousin Ruthe, who used to live on Maui, made a Shokubi request for "something Li Hing Mui". Well, here you go Cousin Ruthe!



I have a confession to make to my Shokubi Readers! Disaster struck with this recipe! Well, maybe not a disaster, but it didn't turn out how I wanted it to! I was intending to make a beautiful soft sorbet, but it turned into this super rock hard chunk of ice. It tastes really good, but you will almost break your spoon trying to eat it. I had to scrape the edge of a spoon to get it out of the container! It turned into more of a Granita or shave ice than a sorbet!

I got a KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker attachment for my KitchenAid mixer a few months back for our wedding. I was dying to try it out, but had to wait until after the wedding...no need for extra calories or pounds.

I tried this recipe two times--once with this Pineapple Li Hing Mui granita, and the next day with Mint-Pineapple granita. Both times, I was aiming for a sorbet, but fell far from the mark. The taste was good, but both times it came out super hard.

I am still experimenting with it. A few plausible theories I have as to why it didn't come out right:

1. I didn't have enough sugar in the mix. At the time, I was thinking that because the Li Hing Mui was essentially sugar with licorice flavoring,  and the pineapple had natural sugars in it,  that this would be enough sweetness. I had tasted the mixture before freezing and after freezing, and it was plenty sweet. I had added only 2 tablespoons of sugar to this dish. By contrast, when I was making a Lemongrass Mint sorbet a few months back, I had added 1.5 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water.

So for the same volume of liquid, 1.5 cups of sugar is going to give you a very soft sorbet, and 2 tablespoons is going to give you a very hard granita. The hypothesis I am arriving at is that the sugar is providing a textural element as well, making it softer somehow. Perhaps the sugar is prevents the liquid element from forming ice crystals, making it softer.

2. I didn't seep or boil the liquid.  When I made a Lemongrass Mint sorbet a few months back, I had seeped the flavor elements (mint and lemongrass) in boiling water with sugar for 20 minutes. This allowed the flavor to infuse into the liquid. Obviously, the heat released some natural oils in the lemongrass, and possibly the mint. Maybe by heating the liquid and then adding the sugar, the sugar dissolved into the mixture, changing itself structurally. Any chemists out there who can help me confirm this hypothesis?

3. The pineapple is making the dish too chunky. Somehow the pineapple is interfering with the formation of ice crystals, making the whole thing hard. I don't know the science behind this...Any readers out there chemists? I am experimenting with blending the pineapple in the food processor, then squeezing out the liquid with a cheesecloth. This will impart the flavor of pineapple. Then after everything has gone through the ice cream maker, I add back in a few spoonfuls of the pineapple.

In any event, I found that if I let this granita sit outside the freezer for about 5-8 minutes, the ice crystals loosen up and it is easier to spoon out. Either way, it tastes good.

I will first write how I made this granita, then follow it up with how I would do it a second time.

This granita, as it is, also works wonders as a base for mixed drinks. Like a Li Hing Mui Mojito!

Ingredients Initial Run (what I did)
1 Fresh Pineapple, cut into cubes (about 3 1/4 cups)
Li Hing Mui Powder, 2 tablespoons

Procedure: Initial Run
Place your ice cream maker's bowl and paddle,  in the freezer and let it freeze completely (at least 24 hours).

Cut your pineapple into cubes, as outlined in my blog post Cutting a Pineapple. Cut and remove the core. You can either toss the core or makes something else with it. I place my cores in a glass jar with vodka and make pineapple infused vodka!

Add the pineapple cubes to your food processor and blend until smooth. Add the Li Hing Mui powder. Blend again until the Li Hing Mui Powder is mixed thoroughly. Taste. Add more Li Hing Mui powder until you get a flavor profile you enjoy. The whole mixture should look orange.

Set up the Ice cream bowl and paddle on your KitchenAid (see my blog post Lemongrass Granita to learn how to set up your KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker).

Pour the Pineapple & Li Hing Mui mixture into the bowl. Churn for 7-12 minutes on speed 1. Remove and pour into a plastic container. Freeze.













2nd Run
Ingredients 2nd Run
1 Fresh Pineapple, cut into cubes (about 3 1/4 cups)
1.5 cups sugar
1 cup of boiling water
Li Hing Mui Powder, 2 tablespoons

Procedure: 2nd Run
Place your ice cream maker's bowl and paddle in the freezer and let it freeze completely (at least 24 hours).

Cut your pineapple into cubes, as outlined in my blog post Cutting a Pineapple. Cut and remove the core. You can either toss the core or makes something else with it. I place my cores in a glass jar with vodka and make pineapple infused vodka!

Add the pineapple cubes to your food processor and blend until smooth. In a separate bowl, add sugar and boiling water. Stir till the sugar is dissolved. Add the pineapple and give it a good stir again. Place a kitchen towel over the mixture and let seep for 20 minutes.

Strain the mixture through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. Discard the solids or place the solids in a glass jar of vodka to seep for flavored vodka.

Add the Li Hing Mui powder to the liquid.

Take the liquid and run it through an Ice Cream maker as outlined above.

3rd Run
Ingredients 3rd Run
1 Fresh Pineapple, cut into cubes (about 3 1/4 cups)
3 cups sugar
1 cup of boiling water
Li Hing Mui Powder, 4 tablespoons

Procedure: 3rd Run
Place your ice cream maker's bowl and paddle in the freezer and let it freeze completely (at least 24 hours).

Cut your pineapple into cubes, as outlined in my blog post Cutting a Pineapple. Cut and remove the core. You can either toss the core or makes something else with it. I place my cores in a glass jar with vodka and make pineapple infused vodka!

Add sugar and the pineapple to a large bowl. With your hands or a large pestle, squish the pineapple into the sugar, breaking up the pineapple and releasing some of its juices. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes, allowing the pineapple to release some of its juices. Add the boiling water. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Cover with a kitchen towel and let seep for 20 minutes or until cool.

Strain the mixture with a cheesecloth, separating the solids from the liquids. Add the Li Hing Mui Powder to the liquid part and stir to incorporate. Place the liquid portion into the refrigerator. Discard the solids or place in a glass jar with vodka.

Cool the mixture and run through an ice cream maker, as outlined above.

I am tempted to say the third one will give the best consistency in terms of texture, but it will have the most sugar! Shokubi Readers, why don't your try making a batch and let me know how it turns out! Either post on my blog (see bottom of the page) or give me a holler on my Twitter account.

Happy cooking! (And eating!!)

Cutting a Pineapple

When I was going to school in Hawaii, one of my favorite snacks was fresh pineapple! I went to a party once, and someone had cut up a pineapple in the most fantastic way and sprinkled Li hing mui powder on it. It was delicious!

I never learned how to cut up a pineapple that way until I met Jill. She is a fantastic cook (and came up with the Baked Tofu recipe I use). She cut the pineapple up in such a way to reduce the amount of waste! It was fantastic.

Next time you get a pineapple, try cutting it up this way! Happy eating!







With a sharp knife, start shaving off the top thick layer of skin on the pineapple. The idea here is to minimize the amount of sweet juicy flesh you cut away, so really go thin! As you cut, you should be able to see "the eyes" of the pineapple.

Once all of the first layer of pineapple skin is off, examine the pineapple. Hopefully, there are no brown or soft spots, indicating rot. If there is a bunch of rot, then you will have to throw the pineapple away! :( But, if there are a few brown spots just carve them out of the pineapple with the knife.

When looking at the pineapple, you should see all the eyes there. Now, those eyes are not very tasty at all, so you will need to remove them. If you look closely, you can see that the eyes of the pineapple line up diagonally cross the pineapple. In the picture to the right you can trace an imaginary diagonal line of eyes from the top right corner of the picture to the bottom left corner of the picture.

Select one of those diagonal lines with eyes on them. Take you knife and turn it so it creates a sharp angle. Make a small incision about a 1/4 of an inch on one side of one or two of the eyes. On the opposite side of the eye, make a similar 1/4 inch incision. Remove and discard that piece of pineapple flesh. The eye should be completely removed, with angled incision marks in the pineapple.








Your pineapple incision should look something like this:
















Here is a closeup of the incision:




















Continue the process of making small, shallow, diagonal cuts until all or most of the eyes of the pineapple have been removed. Keep the same angle throughout the pineapple. In the end you should get a pineapple which looks like a spiral staircase has been carved through it. It should be free of the tough outer skin and any eyes. It should look something like this:

Here is a closeup of those incision lines. As you can see, all the skin and eyes have been removed, leaving only the soft, sweet flesh with a minimum amount of waste! The diagonal lines combine and form a spiral. 

Cut off the top tall grassy part of the pineapple. Take your knife and position it in the center of the flat top the pineapple. Cut down with a strong powerful stroke, cutting the pineapple in half, lengthwise. You should now have two halves of one pineapple.

The next step is to remove and discard the core of the pineapple. It is hard and somewhat bitter and you don't really want to eat it or cook with it. Flip one of the cut halves, so that the flat part is facing you. The core will be in the center. With a sharp knife, make a deep angled incision across the length of the pineapple on both sides and remove the core. I have been trying to think of uses for the core. Currently, I cut the core into chunks and I am keeping them in a jar with vodka to see if I can make pineapple infused Vodka.

Take the cut pineapple half and cut it into slices. Eat immediately or store in your refrigerator.

If you have fresh strawberries and raspberries, make a berry sauce and serve it with the pineapple for a delicious dessert. I like to sprinkle mine with Li Hing Mui (mentioned above) or chili pepper and salt! Delicious!