Thai Pineapple Fried Rice

I was holidaying in the Gold Coast a couple of months ago and whilst there, hubby and I decided to visit a Thai restaurant located not too far from where we were staying. We ordered Thai pineapple fried rice amongst other Thai dishes and were pleasantly surprised and amused that the fried rice came served in a pineapple boat!

I've always admired fruit and vegetable carvings so it wasn't a surprise to my hubby that I was keen to try and carve out my very own pineapple boat when I got back home to Sydney. But as usual, life got very busy as soon as we got back from our holiday and so I just never got around to playing around with this dish. Until...

Just the other day I had a whole pineapple left over after making my fruit kebabs. So, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to recreate some Thai pineapple fried rice.

The ingredients in this fried rice is a little different to how I would normally make my fried since it is Thai style fried rice as opposed to the Chinese-style fried rice. Nonetheless, the method of cooking is very similar. 

In this recipe I have added lots of extra curry powder and chilli since hubby likes a bit of spiciness in his food ;) However, you can adjust the following recipe to make it as mild or as spicy as you wish just by adding more or less curry powder, omitting the chillies etc.

This is also a good dish to bring along for a pot luck or to make if you're having a lunch or dinner with friends over. They'll be pretty impressed with the presentation!

Ingredients

2-3 tbsp oil
1 whole pineapple or 225g tinned pineapple pieces, juice drained
4 cups of cooked rice, cooled
1 cup frozen carrots, corn, peas mix or whatever vegetables you desire
3 cloves garlic
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 red bird eye chilli
2 tbsp curry powder
1 tbs soy sauce
3 eggs, beaten
8-10 medium prawns, peeled, deveined and chopped into small pieces
⅓ cup cashew nuts (optional)
cracked pepper (optional)

Method

1. Slice off one side of the pineapple to remove the skin (do not cut off the leaves). Carve out the fruit from inside the pineapple. Set carved pineapple aside.
2. Pound chilli and garlic in a mortar and pestle to make a paste. If you don't own one, just use your knife to flatten it.
3. Place oil in a work or frying pan and turn heat to medium high. Add the chilli paste and diced shallots. Saute until fragrant.
4. Add the frozen vegetables, cashew nuts, prawns and stir fry for about 2 minutes.
5. Add the rice, soy sauce, curry powder and cracked pepper. Stir fry everything together until well combined then add the pineapple pieces.
6. Push the rice to the edges of wok/fry pan, add the beaten eggs into the centre of the wok/fry pan and scramble them till cooked.
7. Continue to stir fry the rice and ensure that all ingredients are mixed thoroughly.
8. Taste the rice, if not salty enough add some soy sauce or salt.
9. Serve in the carved out pineapple.
10. Enjoy!