Pina Loca or crazy pineapple is a summertime treat that you are sure to love if you like sweet, sour, spicy, in one bowl. It is has become my favorite food as of late and I love it because its versatile. Pina Loca’s are sold all over the place in my little Central Cali town at the local carnicerias or Mexican Delicatessen, fruterias or Koritas…shops which specialize in selling fruit drinks and concoctions such as the Pina Loca or Diablito slushie, my favorite tamarind slush, or even on street corners. These shops bring Mexican street food to the masses. El Korita and Sabores de mi Tierra are two of my favorite places to go in town locally, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sabores-De-Mi-Tierra/627277840618966 the link to Sabores Facebook page. If you live in a town that has any of these and have never been inside one I urge you to go because you will be in for a treat!
Currently there is even someone selling these Pina Locas on Facebook locally for 7 dollars a pop. She makes a pretty penny. While it is time consuming to cut all the fruit up you can make a large bowl of this and keep it in the fridge for about 10-12 dollars and you get about 10-14 servings. Lets get started
Ingredients for Pina Loca/ Crazy Pineapple
1 fresh pineapple cut in half and fruit removed cut into bite size chunks
1 cup of fresh strawberries rinsed and cut in half stems removed
2 kiwi peeled and slice in halves
1 peach or nectarine peel your peach and cut in slices
1 bottle of Chamoy a citric acid/ chile sauce
and some chile lime salt powder like Pica Limon or Tajin found in most markets in Cali
here is a link to mexgrocer.com where you can order traditional mexican ingredients like chamoy and Pica Limon. http://www.mexgrocer.com/95600-00101.html
Chamoy is not as widely found as I thought it would be in the regular markets here, but you may find it locally at Del Valle Foods, I found mine at the 99 cent store in the chip aisle it is called Guacamoya Chamoy and has a parrot on it. Now if you are really ambitious you can make your own. I personally haven’t done that yet but I feel a future post on it coming up! Chamoy is chile sauce traditionally used to dip fruit in. It has a limejuice and chile base and a pickeled fruit like mango or apricot added to it to give a sweet, tart, and spicy taste. Chamoy sauces vary in heat. Here is a basic recipe from McCormick http://www.mccormick.com/Recipes/Sauces/Chamoy-Sauce
you can see the parrot on my bottle of chamoy.
Remove the half of pineapple using a knife and if you have a grapefruit spoon use that if you want to serve your salad in the pineapple a great presentation but not necessary. Rinse the half out too and pat dry. The next step is to throw all your cut fruit in a bowl and mix well. This makes enough for two pineapple halves heaping with fruit. 4 people can eat this amount but to be hones you are not going to want to share!
I also rinse the pineapple after I have removed it and cut it in pieces. I didn’t rinse it the first time and my tongue felt like it had pins and needles on it for about 6 hours( but it was so good! I recommend rinsing it well. Especially if you are sensitive to fruits of any kind.
The next step is to layer the flavors add a layer of fruit and sprinkle on some chamoy to taste and add a sprinkle of the Tajin or Pico Limon, repeat until your pineapple is full. Best served chilled but good at room temperature…chill your fruit before hand in the fridge. Be adventurous and use any combination of fruit you like. Watermelon and melons, mangos, nectarines all go well in this Pina Loca. I f you want to forgo the spicy flavor all together use honey and shredded coconut instead, but it wont be the same as the traditional Pina Loca!
The final step is to enjoy that Pina Loca on a hot summer night with some tea, surprisingly its good with an ice cold Mexican beer too!
Enjoy!
K.
A Pickers Daughter 