This Thai Pineapple Fried Rice recipe uses sour spicy Tom Yum Paste, along with Shrimp, Peppers, cured Ham, and Chinese Black Mushrooms.
Serving the rice in a hollowed half of a Pineapple shell is popular in Thai restaurants and it isn’t hard to do at home. It makes for an attractive addition to the table and will leave you some of the fresh Pineapple for other uses too.
Ingredient Notes
The Recipe Card below calls for diced Ham. This is one of those situations where using the sort of deli meat pressed ham from the supermarket is not a great idea. Much better to choose something of high quality, such as Chinese Jinhua Ham, or perhaps even a Smithfield Ham.
This recipe also calls for tiny cooked shrimp. You may have to do what I did for on this specific day, however, and substitute chopped up larger shrimp rather than the smaller, cocktail size. The latter are not always available frozen (which was the case here), but the taste is much nicer, so use them if you can.
Finally, Tom Yum Paste gives the fried rice that taste of Thailand, but you can use some other spice blend if you like. There are many brands and types to choose from. But a Maesri Panang Curry Paste would also be very nice here.
The Method
First, you need to scoop the flesh out from your Pineapple half, as shown above, and reserve about half cup or so of chunks for this dish. The remainder can be used elsewhere.
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Heat a tablespoon or so of oil in a sauté pan over a medium flame, then add the ham, chopped mushroom and red pepper. Stir-fry until you can smell the aroma of the ham.
Now add the shrimp, green pepper and the tom yum paste and stir-fry for another minute or so.
Finally, add the rice and the pineapple, stirring until all is hot, then transfer it all to your pineapple shell. Garnish as you see fit (I used a few celery leaves and a Thai chili), and then serve immediately.
Your Recipe Card:
Thai Pineapple Fried Rice
Ingredients
- ½ fresh Pineapple cut lengthwise
- 2 cups cold cooked Rice;
- 2 dried Chinese Black Mushrooms reconstituted and diced;
- ½ cup tiny cooked Shrimp;
- ½ cup diced Ham;
- ¼ cup finely diced Red Bell Pepper;
- ¼ cup finely diced Green Bell Pepper;
- 1 tbsp. Tom Yum Soup Paste.
Instructions
- Scoop the flesh out of the Pineapple half and dice about a half cup or so of the flesh, reserving the remainder for other uses.
- Heat a tablespoon or so of oil in a sauté pan over a medium flame, then briefly stir-fry the ham, chopped mushroom and red pepper.
- Add the shrimp, green pepper and the tom yum paste and stir-fry for another minute.
- Finally, add the rice and the pineapple, stir-frying until all is heated through, then transfer the contents to the pineapple shell.
- Garnish as desired and serve while hot.