Marinate with fresh pineapple for thirty minutes, no longer. Beyond that the meat surface turns to mush. And canned pineapple will not do this at all.
2 servings45 min
Blend 100 g of the pineapple and mix it with the soy sauce, minced garlic and pepper for the marinade. Cut the remaining 150 g into large chunks for the skewers.
Cut the pork into 3 cm cubes, add to the marinade, and refrigerate for exactly 30 minutes. Use a timer.
Lift the meat out the moment the 30 minutes are up. Discard the marinade.
If using wooden skewers, soak them 20 minutes so they do not burn.
Cut the pepper and onion to roughly the size of the meat.
Thread in the order pork, pineapple, pepper, onion, alternating.
Brush lightly with the olive oil.
Grill over medium heat, 3 minutes a side, 12 minutes in all. Do not blacken them over high heat.
Pull them when the pork reaches 63°C internal and rest 3 minutes.
Thirty minutes is a number to respect. Pineapple's bromelain is a protein-cutting enzyme, and it really does sever the muscle fibres and connective tissue in meat — that is the tenderising. But it does not stop. Past an hour the surface of the meat unravels into cotton and loses its shape on the grill.
Canned pineapple will not do this, because heat sterilisation inactivates the bromelain. For tenderising, use fresh pineapple only. For the same reason, gelatine desserts need canned.
The core holds the most bromelain. It is usually discarded for toughness, but it is exactly the part to blend into a marinade.
Medium heat is about not charring. Blackening meat at high temperature produces heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The sugar in the pineapple colours things faster, so keep the heat down and turn often. Cut away any blackened parts.
The pepper is here for vitamin C — 128 mg per 100 g in red bell pepper, against 47.8 mg in pineapple. Both are heat-sensitive, so much of the grilled pineapple's vitamin C is lost; what stays raw is what counts.
Pork comes off at 63°C. The old 71°C guidance has been lowered. The temperature climbs during the three-minute rest.
Fruits
Early researchBromelain tablets after third-molar surgery improved pain and quality-of-life scores. But there was no evidence for swelling or trismus, and what was given was an isolated enzyme, not fruit. Pineapple's own strengths are 47.8 mg of vitamin C and 0.927 mg of manganese.
Meat
Nutrition dataPork carries more than eight times the thiamine of beef. Which cut you choose decides the fat you get with it.
Vegetables
Moderate evidence128 mg of vitamin C per 100 g of red pepper. The Cochrane review, though, found no reduction in colds.
Vegetables
Moderate evidenceThe evidence for garlic points to a modest drop in blood pressure and cholesterol. The trick is to crush it and wait ten minutes before it hits the heat.