Pineapple and Prawn Fried Rice

Moderation. Small helpings. Sample a little bit of everything. These are the secrets of happiness and good health ~ Julia Child ~

Julia Child, in this one statement has almost covered my entire post. Whenever I write a post I try and describe the essence of the cuisine and the dish that I am covering. But then, what I want to cover today is something special, a first of sorts even for me. And so, I’m thinking, how do I describe a cuisine that that ranked number 4  when people were asked to name an ethnic cuisine. And in list of the “World’s 50 most delicious foods” compiled by CNN, 5 dishes from here made it to the list including the number 1 dish. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? Any guesses which cuisine is it? I so want to be partial and say its Indian cuisine, but this time we’ll have to give it to Thai Cuisine.

Just like what Julia Child said, Thai cuisine is simply a little of everything. What may seem a simple dish to casual on looker, is actually a complex coming together of many flavors. Thai food is known to have a balance of at least 4-5 flavours in each dish.  

Pineapple and prawns is a combination that absolutely made in heaven. This is again a one pot meal that you could put together in like 20 minutes flat. I made this as a first attempt on Thai food and it came out pretty well. Many more to come, I promise.

Do give it a try, I’d love to hear how it turned out.

Thai Pineapple and Prawn Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup pre-cooked rice
• 100 grams fresh pineapple, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 50 grams fresh prawns
• 2-3 Thai red chillies 
• 4-5 French beans, cut into bite sized bits.
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• 5-6 leaves fresh basil leaves
• 50 ml fresh Pine apple Juice
• 2 tablespoon Soya Sauce
• 2 tablespoon Fish Sauce
• 4 tablespoons oil
• Salt- to taste 

Procedure:

• Using a mortar and pestle, roughly pound the chillies and garlic to a rough paste.

• In a large pan or wok, heat oil and fry the basil leaves till they are crisp. Remove and keep aside.
• To the same oil, add the chilli garlic paste and fry till the garlic is brown (but not burnt). Add the pineapple and stir fry till the pineapple have a slight brown coating.
• Add the prawns and cook for about minute till the prawns are cooked. Add the french beans and cook.
• Combine the Pineapple juice, Fish Sauce and Soya Sauce in a bowl and stir well to combine.
• Add rice to the wok and and some of the mixture of the sauces and pineapple juice. Mix well to combine.
• Repeat this process for the remainder of the rice and the juice mixture.
• Now add the fried basil leaves and give it a final mix.
• Serve hot.