Thai Pineapple Fried Rice

Since young, my family and i use to enjoy dinning in Thai Restaurants back home. We even used to drive across the border of Thailand just to have lunch there and come back. We seldom do that now since Thailand has become a little politically unstable.
We used to always order pineapple fried rice as a side dish when we had Thai food.It always came in a nicely carved pineapple and i was perpetually amused with it. I adore fruit and vegetable carvings. A friend of mine was hankering for pineapple fried rice a few days ago. It has been some time since i had Thai food and thought why not. I knew it was quick and won't take much time to prepare.



While i decided to cook the fried rice, he decided to be useful and started cutting the pineapple and scooping flesh of it out.

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil
1 whole pineapple/ 1 can canned pineapple, drained
3 cups of rice, jasmine preferably
1 cup frozen mix vegetables/ whatever vegetables you desire
3 cloves garlic
1 small onion
3 red chilli
2 tsp curry powder
1 tbs soy sauce
3 eggs
1/2 cup prawns or chicken fillet
2 tbs fish sauce(for vegetarians u can get vegetarian fish sauce if not just use soy sauce)
1/3 cup cashew nuts (optional)
Cracked pepper(optional)

Method

1. Slice off one side of the pineapple to remove the skin (do no 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 wok and turn heat on to medium-high. Add the chilli paste and onion and sautée until fragrant.
4. Add the vegetables, cashew and prawns and fry for about 1-2 minutes.
5. Add the rice in then fish sauce, soy sauce , curry powder and pepper. Add pineapple in after.
6. Make a hole in the middle of the rice and fry the eggs. Taste the rice, if its not salty enough add soy sauce or salt.
7. Serve in the carved out pineapple.

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