Dried Pineapple Flowers. A recipe and a story about a favourite person I wanted to write about for a very long time— my grandma — a tea and pineapple farmer in Nantou, Taiwan. The person who instilled in me a love for this marvellous fruit. Golden, ripened under the sun, syrupy sweet they hurt your teeth and so fragrant that drivers put them in their cabs as a natural perfume.

So much of my love for food, being in the kitchen, making things with my hands come from grandma, who wakes up at five am every day to cook for the masses. Tables filled with marinated pork with eggs, her famous fried fish with tomato sauce, sesame oil chicken for winter months, and the best-fried tofu I could eat platefuls of with congee and soy sauce every morning.

Since grandpa passed a few years ago, grandma renounced meat (a tradition in Buddhist culture where they believe will help grandpa’s soul go to heaven). Since then, all activity in grandma’s kitchen has stopped. My remaining family on the farm eats out while grandma eats her vegetarian meals in solitude. My heart kind of breaks over this and for my grandmother — who shows so much love through food. I also feel the urge to share more of her recipes and write about my childhood memories and places that will never be the same.

There are so many recipes I want to collect from grandma — her delicious fried long green beans, squash flowers from her yard and boiled noodles with tea oil (茶油麵線). I wish I could teleport to her farm and take more photos of grandma — slicing pineapples with graceful skills acquired from a lifetime.

So here it is, a simple but tedious recipe dedicated to my pineapple farmer grandma, whose love for her grandchildren travels miles and continents. I made two batches of these pineapple flowers and photographed them over the course of a few days. It takes a bit of patience waiting for them to dry out, but the results are very much worth it.

Dried Pineapple Flowers

Ingredients

One ripe pineapple
A sharp knife or mandolin
Baking trays and sheets

Instructions

1. Cut both ends of the pineapple. Stand pineapple on the bottom and cut deliberately around the fruit. Do not hesitate to cut into the flesh and get rid of the eyes (鳳梨眼 in Mandarin). The pineapple will taste a lot less tart.

2. Cut pineapple into even slices as thin as possible (thin enough that you can see the blade through the slice). I used a knife but a mandolin will do its job too. Pat dry with paper towels, remove as much moisture as you can, and lay flat without overlapping on a baking sheet.

3. Bake at 220F for two or more hours. The time will depend on your oven. Flip pineapples flowers every 30 minutes or so to ensure even drying. Bake and repeat until pineapples are dried, golden with a texture that represents dried mangos. I leave mine in the oven after I turn off the heat to further dry them out. See additional notes below.

4. Place pineapple flowers in muffin tins to attain a curvy shape. Store in an airtight container with plenty of room as the flowers will stick to each other. I kept mine stored separately in silicon muffin cups.

* Check on your pineapple flowers when they are almost done as they go from dried to burnt in a very short time. If your pineapple flowers are still wet to the touch, turn the heat off and leave them in the oven overnight.