Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson with Recipe by Lee Majhen-Todd
Author
Jenny Jackson
When Jenny Jacksons was a child, she had a dream of becoming a writer, and when she became an adult, she made it happen.
Her first book, Pineapple Street was a roaring success and as she typed those immortal last words, ‘The End’, she knew it was going to be a winner.
Jenny studied writing in high school and college,
Although it was the first novel that was published, it wasn’t the first she had written, but before any of that could happen, she needed a steady income, so publishing was a way to practice her editing skills
Jenny Jackson
Book
This book is about three women of different generations within a prominent Brooklyn family.
It’s about class, money, parental expectations, the haves the have nots, dreams and being human.
Darley, the eldest daughter who had never had to worry about money and chose her heat over the money.
There’s Sasha, who married into it, being labelled a gold digger because she thought twice about not signing a pre-nup.
Georgina, the youngest, falls in love with the wrong person and has to decide who she is and who she wants to be.
Great book
My Thoughts
Witty and written with intense fun. The characters are human and fallible and I related to their flaws and dreams of the characters.
It’s a beautifully observed book about families and I read it in one sitting while curled around a cup of hot green tea.
I found out that the book has been picked up and will be made into a tv series, I can only hope that when the characters hit the screen, are as full and human, as they are in the book.
4 1/2 egg rating
Food
This month its a recipe using goat cheese and milk in this delicious Brown Butter Cauliflower Cheese.
Brown butter is a secret ingredient that is something that, if you’ve not used it yet, its definitely worth getting your butter brown vibe going.
What You Need
1 Large Cauliflower
700mls St Helens Farm Milk
200g St Helens Farm Mature Cheese – Grated
200g Bread Crumbs – See Tip Box
100g St Helens Farm Butter
60ml Olive oil
30g Plain Flour
2 Tsp Dijon Mustard
How It’s Done
Heat the oven to 200c
Prepare the Breadcrumbs – Place the olive oil and the breadcrumbs into a bowl and give it a good mix until the breadcrumbs have soaked up all the oil.
Set the bowl aside until needed.
Pour the St Helens Farm Milk into a saucepan and over a medium heat, let it heat up until just below boiling point.
Once hot, turn the heat off and leave in the saucepan until needed.
Place the St Helens Farm butter into a medium sized saucepan.
Over a medium heat, slowly melt the butter.
Once melted, keep heating the butter until it bubbles.
Swirl the pan and let it bubble until the St Helens Farm butter becomes a deep golden colour – See Tip Box
Once the St Helens Farm butter has reached the brown butter stage, remove the pan from the heat and add the flour to the pan.
Using a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, stir in the flour until the flour has soaked up all of the brown butter.
Turn the heat down to low and return the saucepan to the heat.
While stirring constantly, gently heat the flour mixture for 2 minutes – See Tip Box
After the 2 minutes, remove the flour mixture from the heat.
Pour the hot St Helens Farm milk into the flour mixture, and using a whisk, whisk together until smooth.
Return the pan to a medium heat and heat gently until the sauce becomes smooth and thickens up.
Stir in the grated cheese and the Dijon mustard.
Keep whisking the sauce over the heat, until the cheese melts and the sauce is a smooth.
Season the brown butter sauce with salt and pepper to taste – See Tip Box
Once the sauce is ready, remove from the heat and set it aside until needed
Prepare the cauliflower – Remove the leaves from the cauliflower – See Tip Box
Cut off the bottom of the cauliflower.
Using a sharp knife, separate the cauliflower florets, slicing the larger florets into smaller pieces.
Place the cauliflower into a large bowl and pour over the brown butter cheese sauce, making sure to scrape all of the sauce from the bowl.
Mix the sauce and the cauliflower together so all of the cauliflower pieces are coated in the sauce.
Transfer the coated cauliflower and any of the sauce into an oven proof dish.
Scatter the breadcrumbs over the top of the cauliflower, making sure to get an even layer.
Place the dish onto an oven proof tray and then onto the middle shelf of the hot oven.
Cook until the top is a golden brown, the center is bubbling, piping hot and the cauliflower pieces are fork tender.
If the top gets too dark before the cauliflower is cooked through, cover the dish loosely with foil and return to the hot oven until the cooking is finished.
Once cooked, remove from the oven and serve hot or cold.
Tip Box
Let the butter bubble – When making the brown butter, don’t take your eye off it. It can go from a beautiful golden colour to burnt very quickly
Cooking the flour – Cooking the flour for a few minutes helps to activate the gluten but it also cooks out the raw flour taste.
To Taste – Adding salt and pepper to taste, means the seasoning suits you.
Cauliflower leaves – Don’t throw out the cauliflower leaves, use them to make a cauliflower soup or slice thinly and use in stir fries or salads
Cooking the dish – 1) The dish has finished cooking when the cauliflower is fork tender and the breadcrumbs are a deep, dark brown.
2) Even though the breadcrumbs should be very dark, if they start to burn before the cauliflower is cooked, add a loose piece of foil to the top of the dish to cover all of the breadcrumbs until the cauliflower has finished cooking through.
