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© Copyright 1995-2023, Clay Irving <clay@panix.com>, Manhattan Beach, CA USA
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Recipe from: WingsFan91
This is an unusual recipe for Thai food because it is essentially a vegetarian dish - they are not common in Thailand, where even nominally vegetarian dishes often have quite a large amount of meat. This one has a little dried shrimp, and the true vegetarian could easily leave that out.
It is also unusual in that it is rather a theatrical dish: though the theatricality comes from a Thai habit of frugality, and perhaps a desire to have less dishes to wash!
For two people you need a medium size pineapple: choose carefully. It should be sweet and juicy.
1 pineapple
⅔ tablespoon chopped shallots, or purple onion
½ tablespoon grated ginger
about 4 to 5 red chiles, finely julienned
the green of 2 spring onions, coarsely chopped
about 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons dried shrimp
⅔ tablespoon garlic, coarsely chopped
1 to 2 tablespoons nam pla
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
2 cups cold, steamed rice and cilantro leaves as garnish
Cut the pineapple in half lengthwise, and scoop out the fruit (my wife uses a curved "grapefruit knife", but any knife will do...) then chop it into bite sized chunks. Put the fruit in a bowl and add the shallots, chili, ginger, scallion and coriander, mix and set aside. Add a pinch of salt to bring out the juice...
In a wok, heat about a tablespoon of oil, and stir fry the shrimp until crispy, and the oil is aromatic. Remove the shrimp with a slotted spoon and drain, then set aside. Add a further tablespoon of oil, and stir fry the garlic until golden brown. Add the rice, and stir thoroughly. Add the fish sauce and sugar, and continue stirring. When the rice is heated through, add the pineapple mixture and cooked shrimp, and stir until thoroughly heated through. Pour the mixture into the pineapple shells, garnish and serve.
Note:
If you prefer fried rice to be darkish brown in colour, then replace half the fish sauce with dark sweet soy sauce.
Variation:
Do not cook the fruit mixture. Instead put the fruit mixture and the stir fried rice in the fridge (separately) and chill all the ingredients, then just before serving mix them and put them in the pineapple skins. If you are serving cold then you can also add a few maraschino cherries as garnish. This cold variant makes an excellent counterpoint to hot curries and spicy chile dishes on a hot day (and it gets hot here I can assure you, with the shade temperature topping 40 Celsius on many a day)
Special thanks to - Muoi Khuntilanont.