SWEET & SPICY THAI PINEAPPLE FRIED RICE

Thai pineapple fried rice would be a great option if you are looking for something sweet and spicy. For this fried rice, shrimp is commonly used as a main ingredient to make it more flavourful. If you don't eat seafood, try the following pineapple fried rice recipe, which is a vegetarian version where spices are used to enhance the flavour.

"Pineapple Fried Rice" is a popular Thai cuisine which is both sweet and savoury in taste. This particular dish, which is also known as "Thai Pineapple Fried Rice" is probably one of the most renowned dishes in Thailand, which is popularly served within the husk of the pineapple fruit, usually having sweet pineapples as the main ingredient.

Generally, fried rice is a dish of cooked rice that has been stir-fried in a wok or a frying pan and is usually mixed with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables, seafood, or meat. It is often eaten by itself or along with another dish. Fried rice is first known to be developed during the Sui Dynasty in China and as such all fried rice dishes can trace their origins to Chinese fried rice.

Fried rice is a popular component of Asian cuisines specially in East Asia, Southeast Asia and in certain South Asian countries. As a homemade dish, traditional fried rice is typically made with ingredients left over from other dishes and with the time it has evolved into manifold dishes having different combinations of ingredients.

INGREDIENTS

• Rice - 2 standard rice cups of Basmati
• Coconut oil - enough amount to deep fry onion and 2 tablespoons to fry vegetables
• Onion - 1 large size bulb cut into thin strips
• Ginger - 1 teaspoon (chopped)
• Garlic - 1 teaspoon (chopped)
• Cinnamon - (2-3) small pieces or ½ teaspoon of powder
• Clove - 2 pieces
• Cardamom - 2 pods
• Butter - 2.5 tablespoons
• Curry leaves - (10-15) large leaves
• Pandan leaves - 1 small leaf cut into small strips
• Carrot - 1 medium size root, cut into small cubes
• Eggs - 5 medium size
• Pineapple - 1 small ripen fruit cut into small cubes
• Cashew nut - 50 g (baked)
• Leek - leaves of 2 medium size sheaths, cut into small pieces
• Pepper - as per taste
• Salt - as per the taste
• Sesame oil - 2 tablespoons of pure roasted sesame oil

METHOD

• Step 1: Wash the rice and put it into a rice cooker.
• Step 2: Add enough amount of water to completely cook the rice, add salt as per taste and switch on the rice cooker. Press the cook button and let the rice to cook.
• Step 3: After 15 - 20 minutes; when the rice is completely cooked, mix the rice and keep the lid open until it cools down to room temperature.
• Step 4: Add coconut oil into a non-stick deep skillet and deep fry the onions until a golden brown colour appears. Take out the fried onions and keep aside. Avoid over frying as it will give a bitter taste.
• Step 5: Remove excess oil from the skillet, add eggs into the skillet and make a scrambled egg. Keep this also aside.
• Step 6: Add 2 tablespoons of coconut oil into the skillet. Add garlic, ginger, curry leaves, pandan leaves, cinnamon, clove and cardamom into the skillet and sauté for 1 minute (until the aroma comes out).
• Sep 7: Add carrot into the skillet and sauté for 1 minute. Add butter into the skillet at this time and mix together.
• Step 8: Add pineapple into the skillet, mix with other ingredients and sauté for another 1-2 minutes.
• Step 9: Add the rice into the skillet little by little and keep mixing well for 30 - 45 seconds.
• Step 10: Add leeks, fried onions, scrambled egg and baked cashew nuts into the skillet. Also add a little amount of pepper and salt as per your taste  and stir everything together. Allow to cook this for another 30 - 45 seconds.
• Step 11: Take the skillet out from the heat and add sesame oil into the fried rice and mix properly.
• Step 12: Serve this rice hot for lunch or dinner.

The above recipe is enough for 4 people. If your requirement is different you can adjust the ingredient quantities accordingly. Besides, when adding vegetables and eggs you can adjust the amounts according to your preference. When adding sesame oil make sure not to add while the skillet is on heat, as that will destroy the taste and aroma of sesame oil.

Apart from the above given ingredients, you also can add green beans, prawns, chicken, pork or any other meat as per your preference. Generally, for Thai pineapple fried rice soya sauce is used. In my recipe, I have not added soya sauce as I do not like its taste. But you can add soya sauce after adding carrot into the skillet, if you like. In addition, you can also use fish sauce as well depending on your preference. Also, you can add curry powder after adding other spices, if you prefer.

The standard rice cup size I used was 180 ml. Normally depending on the rice variety you use; the water requirement for initial cooking, amount of salt needed can be vary because the quality of absorbing and time taken for cooking is different between rice varieties. 

I would love to hear your experience in preparing Thai pineapple fried rice. If you have any query, opinion or an idea, do not hesitate to leave a comment below. Also you can follow my Facebook page Cuisines in Style to see the updates. In addition you can tag @cuisines_in_style in your Instagram posts, so that I can see your creative pineapple rice ideas.