I admit it. I love Tiki drinks and my favorite of them all is a Pina Colada. Many years ago, while doing art shows in Las Vegas, I discovered the Mirage's wonderful Strawberry Pina Colada. Every season I went back for my round of art shows (and gambling and play) I would go and order at least one. Now that I don't travel to Vegas as often, I had to come up with my own version.
I do like a Pina Colada based on the standard recipe using rum, pineapple juice and cream of coconut but for this recipe I decided to replace the cream of coconut with the healthier option of coconut milk, use coconut rum to pop up the coconut flavor and add those Mirage inspired strawberries. And, since I was using fresh pineapple juice, I couldn't resist using the pineapple itself for a fun Tiki cup.
It's not as hard as you might think to create your own cup out of a pineapple and the thrill your guests get from the presentation is worth the effort, most of which you will go through anyway when gathering your fruit from the pineapple.
The
STRAWBERRY PINA COLADA
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS:
The first thing you're going to do is harvest your fruit for juice, then you'll turn your pineapple into your drinking vessel. Below are precise instructions for doing this if you are making a cup out of the pineapple.*(Don't toss the peels away either because at the bottom of the post I'm going to tell you how to make even more juice.)
Juice the fruit from your pineapple, either in a blender or a juicer. The blender will have more of a puree unless you strain it whereas a juicer will give you just the juice without pulp. Chill your juice in the refrigerator.
*Here's a link from The Cooking Channel on to how to make pineapple cups. This is exactly how I made mine except I used an ice cream scoop to scoop out the pineapple. Save the top to seal your pineapple cup while you chill it. You can also use the pineapple top in your presentation. Put the tops on and set your pineapple cups in the refrigerator to chill.
MIXING UP THE STRAWBERRY PINA COLADA COCKTAILS
(Makes 4 Drinks)
INGREDIENTS:
4 Oz. Light Rum
2 -3 Oz. Coconut Rum
(In my video below, I had extra coconut rum so I used 3 ounces!)
Simply add all the ingredients except the garnishes to your blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
Pour into your pineapple cup, garnish and serve.
Now you're all ready to enjoy my version of a classic Tiki Cocktail.
Yes, you can make these without alcohol and my video below shows you how.
Aloha!
RECIPE VIDEO:
* *How to Make Fresh Pineapple Juice
Sure, there's lots of lovely fresh juice inside of that pineapple, but did you know there's also a lot of juice on the outside of that pineapple? When you trim down your pineapple to get at the fruit inside and throw away the skin and core you are throwing away a lot of pineapple juice. Below is an easy way to get that extra juice out.
Tools: Knife, stock pot, large strainer, cheesecloth.
Directions:
1. Give the outside of the pineapple a good wash and scrub with a veggie brush and rinse off.
2. Trim your pineapple like you normally would to remove the fruit.
3. Cut the green top off and set aside if you want to use it as part of your presentation, there's no juice in there.
4. Put all the skin and core into a stock pot, cover with water and boil for 30 minutes.
5. Strain the pieces out through a strainer, then strain this juice through cheesecloth to remove finer pieces.
6. You can add sugar if you like, I never do as this secondary juice is sometimes even sweeter than the juice from the fruit itself. It is also lighter and less acidic.
7. Chill and enjoy just as it is, use it for cocktails or even reduce it down and make pineapple simple syrup!
Yes, you can use canned pineapple juice. You won't have the pineapple vessel as your cup so then you would serve this in a hurricane glass.
If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain, you might also enjoy my:
