Barbecued pineapple with rum glaze

I'm struggling with the weather at the moment. One day it is bright sunshine and high temperatures and the next, there is a chilly wind, driving rain and general greyness. I'm inappropriately dressed at almost all times and my fridge is also often inappropriately stocked. Two nights ago, there was a serious nip in the air and I decided that I'd buy ingredients to make a warming chilli for the next evening. Lo and behold - when I arrived back from work yesterday it was muggy and sticky and I was craving a summery salad. Not very clever!

Today is another beautiful day and I hear that the forecast is good for the weekend too. I'm going to a barbecue on Saturday so fingers crossed that is more successful than our attempts last weekend. After a hectic weekend which involved two weddings at different ends of the country (one on Saturday and one on Sunday), we arrived home on Monday pretty exhausted. We did very little all day and eventually decided that a late-afternoon barbecue would be the perfect way to round the weekend off. I was particularly pleased with this suggestion as barbecuing is the flower-sender's domaine and I was too tired to contemplate even the most relaxed of kitchen activity. He kept it simple with homemade burgers, sausages and vegetable skewers and all was going well as we sipped a glass of rosé in the garden. Everything was ready to eat and then... you guessed it... it started to rain. Typical!

The food tasted just as good indoors as it happens and fortunately, the rain eased off just enough for me to dash back outside to cook this rather good barbecue dessert. Big chunks of pineapple glazed with a sticky rum marinade - the perfect way to utilise the last of the heat from the charcoal and a lovely way to round off the meal!

The recipe came from a terrific barbecue book that I own, written by Eric Treuile and Birgit Erath. This book is packed with fantastic recipes for cooking on and off the barbecue - each one is accompanied by a mouthwatering photograph and there are lots of original and inventive ideas.

I think this would be very impressive served with homemade pineapple ice-cream. I didn't have any, but I had just made some strawberry ice-cream so we served it alongside. Recipe coming up soon!

Barbecued pineapple with sweet rum glaze
Serves 4

1 unpeeled medium pineapple, quartered
2 tbsp dark rum
2 tbsp runny honey
1 tbsp muscovado sugar
1 tbsp lime juice

1. Cut away the core from each pineapple quarter.

2. Make the glaze - in a small bowl, mix together rum, honey, sugar and lime juice. Whisk or stir until dissolved.

3. Brush each quarter with some of the glaze and grill on medium-low coals on the barbecue until hot and lightly charred on each side. You might like to brush with more glaze when you turn over.

4. Serve hot with remaining glaze drizzled over the top.