This dish isn't traditional Ibicenco fare – but it can still be found in a more basic form on the island, at one of Sijmonsbergen's favourite restaurants. "I added the mango and the rum, making it almost tropical," she says of this version. "It's our non-local guilty pleasure."
Make Ibiceno pineapple and mango crema catalana
This indulgent dish might not be an Ibicenco classic, but it's delicious nonetheless, using mango and rum for tropical flavour
Serves 4
Preparation time 5 mins
Cooking time 15 mins
Ingredients
- 250ml whole milk
- 250ml double cream
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 7 medium egg yolks
- 80g caster sugar, plus 6 tbsp for topping
- 10g cornflour
- 1 pineapple, ripe but with a firm shell
- 1 very ripe mango, peeled
- 1 tsp dark aged rum
- Finely grated zest of 1 lime
Method
- Place the milk, cream and vanilla bean paste in a saucepan over a medium heat and heat until the mixture begins to steam.
- Meanwhile, put the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat for 2-3 minutes until very pale. Alternatively, beat in a mixing bowl with a hand-held electric mixer.
- Gradually pour the yolk mixture into the hot cream mixture, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring continuously, for 7-10 minutes, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Remove from the heat.
- Halve the pineapple lengthways, leaving each half-shell with its leaves intact. Scoop out the fruit, leaving a 0.5cm-thick shell. Remove all the 'eyes', then weigh out and roughly chop 50g of the pineapple flesh.
- Weigh out 50g of mango flesh and chop it to the same size as the pineapple pieces. Combine the mango, pineapple, rum and lime zest in a bowl and stir together.
- Divide the fruit between the pineapple shells and pour half the crèma over each.
- Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of sugar evenly over each half then caramelise the sugar carefully with a blowtorch before serving (each half should be completely covered in caramelised sugar so it takes a good knock to break it). Serve immediately.
Taken from Eivissa: The Ibiza Cookbook by Anne Sijmonsbergen (HarperCollins, £20). Photography by David Munns.
