Toast Hawaii
Toast Hawaii is my favourite German vintage classic- and it tastes good.
Ingredients
- Toast (wholemeal or white) - 4 slices
- Pineapple, preferably fresh - 4 slices, 1cm each
- Boiled or smoked ham - 4 slices
- Cheese, e.g. Emmental - 4 slices
- Butter - 2 tablespoons
- glacé cherries / fresh cherries - 4
Instructions
1. Lightly toast the bread slices and spread one side with a thin layer of butter. Put 1 slice of smoked or boiled ham on each. Cut from the pineapple 4 slices, each 1 cm thick, and cut out the middle section. Put the pineapple slices on top of the ham, cover them with the cheese.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Bake the toasts for 10-12 min. The cheese should be nicely melted over the pineapple. Put a glacé or a fresh cherry in each hole. Serve warm. You can cook it also in the microwave: 3 min. at approx. 650 Watt
Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a light meal
Toast Hawaii is my favourite German vintage classic because it is emblematic for the Germans in the mid Fifties “Wirtschaftswunder” – and it is has a fruity taste. Clemens Wilmenrod, who made it popular (if he did not invent it), was originally an actor and the first TV cook in Germany. His program was a blockbuster because his creations brought holiday feeling and exotic into German kitchens – with ingredients every housewife could buy at her local grocery store. One of Clemens Wilmenrod’s signature dishes was the stuffed strawberry. It was simply a strawberry stuffed with an almond. He challenged other cooks to prove that he hadn’t invented it. The You Tube clip highlighted shows the original programme. Television cooking programmes are very different today.
Originally Toast Hawaii was made with soft cheese, tinned sweetened pineapple slices and glacé cherries – tributes to the sweet tooth of the generation and the supply of the groceries. I like to do it in a fresh version. In the line of these “exotic” vintage recipes is also the “Torero Breakfast” (coming soon).
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