I’ve always liked cooking a dish and then serving it in the ingredient’s ‘shell’. It seems like such a fun process, not to mention making the dish look more appealing and would probably enhance the flavours as well. That’s exactly what I did with this delicious Thai pineapple fried rice.
I found a HUGE and cheap whole pineapple which was ripe and smelt delicious at Chadstone recently. At $2.50, it was a bargain for the amount of enjoyment I got (and will continue getting) out of it. It has literally transformed my whole kitchen and living room into a pineapple smelling paradise that has almost tricked my mind into believing it might not actually be winter!
Yuye looked up how to grow your own pineapples which actually sounded plausible, but probably not for this cold weather. When I buy this delicious fruit again come Spring time, I will attempt to grow some! Maybe.
The pineapple I picked had rainbow colours on the skin. It was so beautiful, especially when I tried playing with the colours in Lightroom. Here’s a photo of it with the blacks and saturation cranked up.
Cutting the pineapple wasn’t as hard as I thought because it was very ripe, but it was slightly more difficult getting the flesh out of the shell while keeping the shell unharmed. In the end, my kitchen counter was a mess with pineapple juice everywhere. What I did was using a serrated knife and cutting around the edges of the halved pineapple, then using a metal spoon to slowly dig the flesh out. Has anyone else tried to do this and has a trick you don’t mind sharing?
As I didn’t have fresh red chillies in the pantry, I just substituted it with chilli paste which worked fine.
Note: over night rice is a lot better for fried rice dishes because through the cooking process, the rice starches are brought out and freshly made rice tend to go soft and gluggy a lot quicker.
Thai pineapple fried rice
Makes 2 servings
Adapted from Rasa Malaysia
Ingredients
• 1.5 cups over night rice (or roughly 200g)
• 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
• Quarter large pineapple or half small pineapple (roughly 100g), cut into small pieces
• 6 large prawns, cut into small pieces
• 1 tbsp fish sauce or oyster sauce
• 1 tsp shrimp paste (this can be purchased in a butter like block from Asian grocery stores) – don’t use too much of this as it is quite strong in flavour and smell
• 1 tbsp pineapple juice (you will have a lot of this if you bought a whole pineapple)
• 2 stalks coriander, finely chopped, with a few whole leaves to garnish
• A whole red chilli or 1/2 tbsp chilli paste
• A small handful of cashew nuts, roughly chopped (optional)
• 1 tbsp fried shallots as garnish (optional)
• Cooking oil
Instructions
1. Heat a wok with cooking oil to medium high. Fry garlic, chilli paste/red chilli and shrimp paste until aromatic (roughly 2 minutes).
2. Fry prawns until half cooked or just turned colour.
3. Add in rice, fish sauce or oyster sauce, pineapples and pineapple juice and stir through until mixed and rice is heated through. Taste and add in extra seasoning to your liking.
4. Add in chopped coriander and cashew nuts, quickly stir through and cook for further 1 minute then plate up.
5. Top with coriander leaves, fried shallots and a few bits of red chilli as garnish. Serve immediately.
Question time: Do you like pineapples? If you had a whole pineapple, what recipe would you make? I still have more than half a pineapple left so need to make something with them! 
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{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
Delicious! I love fried rice and pineapple. Great clicks.
Cheers,
Rosa
Thanks Rosa! I love fried rice as well and pineapples really add that extra zing to it that makes it so delicious!
I’d eat that… I kinda miss pineapples cos someone doesn’t like them.
LOL I wonder who that might be. ;P You should get some pineapples and eat it while she’s not around.
I’ve seen pineapples on sale recently and I should follow your lead and hollow one out and fill it with fried rice. it looks so festive! And love the rainbow pineapple too!
It does look festive and it felt festive eating it.
Pineapples are quite cheap these days and they’re everywhere!
Pineapples are one of my favourite fruits!
Your photos look so amazing (as usual) and they’re literally making my stomach growl as we speak. Dammit!
Aww thanks Libby!
It’s one of my favourite fruits too! Although I think I have a lot of favourites. 
Your photos and amazing recipe have got me in the serious Thai mood
And for pineapples too – stunning job!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thanks CCU! Thai food is just so delicious.
I’m kind of in a Thai craving right now too…
This whole dish is so stunning and the presentation – WOW. Loving it.
Thanks Joanne!
I cant wait to make these! They sound sooo good.
Thanks love2dine!
Hahaha i remember making this once for my boyfriend when we first started going out! It was so much work and I haven’t made it ever since
he’s still talking about it! Yours look and sound very delicious!
Haha it was a bit of work getting the pineapple ready, but it really works with canned pineapples as well and just putting it in a bowl. It just looks better when served in a pineapple shell.
This is so pretty and sounds delicious! Love your presentation!
Thanks!
I loved the zing and the kick in this dish. 
I was thinking about making pineapple fried rice last week. Your recipe sounds good and is so pretty served in the hollowed out pineapple.
Thanks Karen.
It was hard work to hollow out the pineapple but it was worth it!
I had a similar dish when I was in China last, and I loved it. I’m going to give your recipe a go:)
Thanks Tania! I admit, I’ve actually never had Thai food in China before so I’m not sure what to expect if I did.
I’m sure it was beautiful though since Thai food is quite nice however they’re made! 
Gorgeous photo of that pineapple with the colour saturation turned up! I’m not normally a massive fan of pineapple teamed with savoury food, but I think this is definitely one to try. Thanks for sharing
Thanks Georgia! I usually like to just eat my pineapple by itself, but this dish is just too delicious!
You should sell posters of that “rainbow” pineapple. It’s gorgeous!
Aww thanks Carolyn! I didn’t think they’d be like that much!
Although I’m really not sure if anyone would pay for that photo. 
Wow that pineapple looks so amazing and I love the one on the black background too! This is a wonderful rice dish and I hope you can grow your own pineapple soon!
Thanks Anna! I hope I can manage to grow one, but I have a feeling I’m not going to get around to it.
This is my kids and my favorite rice! If we go to Thai restaurant and they don’t pick Pad Thai, most likely they choose this. I never thought of making it from scratch though. I bet it’s much more delicious making it at home with good ingredients. Yours look beautiful! And lastly, your “rainbow” (thanks Carolyn! you are right!) pineapple shot is AMAZING!!!! WOW, totally breathtaking!!
I always choose Pad Thai as well! I’ve never actually ordered the pineapple fried rice at a Thai restaurant since it’s not all that hard to make at home.
What a fantastic use for pineapple. Usually I just eat it in a very boring way, sliced up, raw, but this is beautiful, and the presentation looks amazing too… so pretty!
Oh I eat pineapple that say all the time too! Just thought I’d be a bit different this time.
Superb presentation. The pineapple platter is such a beauty!
Thanks!
This dish is brilliant and the photos are fantastic!!
Thanks Maureen! It was delicious, although it would have been really good without putting it in the pineapple shell and using canned pineapple I think.
I couldn’t believe when I saw this recipe, this is my absolute favorite dish at my go-to Thai joint. Serving it in a pineapple is a wonderful idea! I cannot WAIT to make this. A slice of lime is also a great garnish with this dish too in my experience!!
Thanks a lot Helen.
The lime is a good idea, I had lime sitting on the kitchen bench as well, can’t believe I didn’t think of it!
Super pictures. Love the third one (the over-saturated one). And a very creative presentation for a great recipe. What do do with the rest of the pineapple? How about pineapple salsa? Just mix chunks of pineapple with salsa, hot peppers, onion, some lime juice, maybe some cilantro – however you’d normally make a salsa. It’s a great dish, and one I haven’t made for a few years. I need to again!
Thanks kitchenriffs.
Salsa sounds like a good idea, I just made a tomato and avocado salsa and a green tomato salsa, but I might do another one with the left over pineapples. 