Liv, Author at Egg Wan's Food Odyssey

Pineapple Prawn Fried Rice

by Liv | Sep 12, 2016

One of my favourite dishes when I was young is this pineapple and prawn fried rice. Possibly the most endearing memory of this dish is having the fried rice served literally in a pineapple. It’s just so much fun to see food that has been served in a pineapple rather than ordinary plates or bowls.

I’m not really a big fan of pineapple, I won’t eat it as a fruit on itself, but I really like cooking dishes with pineapple in them. These include this prawn and pineapple fried rice dish as well as sweet and sour dishes in general. I just think pineapple once “cooked” tastes so delicious.

You can also add some toasted cashews or sweet cashews to give this dish a little bit of a nutty and earthy aroma. If you have a shellfish or seafood allergy you can replace the shrimps/prawns with chicken.

I think the most difficult part of this recipe is how to dig out the pineapple meat from the pineapple. We will use the shell of the pineapple to serve our pineapple fried rice inside. I have included procedure photos with information on what to do in this article.

Procedures for how to dig out the pineapple meat:

1. Take a whole pineapple

2. Slice the pineapple along the middle

3. Cut around the inside of edge of the pineapple in a square pattern

4. It’s easiest if you cut out the pineapple meat in square or rectangular sections. This method is much tidier

5. Pineapple meat has been cut-out. You may need to pull the meat out by hand but this is perfectly fine.

Pineapple Prawn Fried Rice

Course Main Dish

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

25 pcs prawns peel, de-vein and clean
800 g pineapple 1 small whole pineapple including skin, head, etc
450 g rice cold or leftover
2 spring onions keep all parts
100 g Frozen peas and sweetcorn
100 g carrot small diced
4 eggs large

Seasonings

2 tbsp light soy sauce
Salt to taste

Marinade for prawns

2 pinches salt
1 tsp rice wine
1/4 tsp coarse black pepper

Instructions

Marinade prawns with marinade for 10-15 minutes.
Mix 3 eggs yolks with cold rice and leave aside.
Beat the other egg, egg whites and leave aside.
Cut pineapple into half and dig out the pineapple, then cut the pineapple meat into small dices.
Boil water in a small saucepan and cook carrots until al-dente and add peas and sweet corn to finish. Drain the water and leave aside.
Heat up a little bit of oil in a wok and stir-fry onions first until they are soft. Then add pineapple to stir-fry for 20 seconds.
Add prawns and stir-fry until it starts to change to a red colour. Cook until prawns have completely turned red in colour then place on a plate and leave them aside.
Clean the wok and dry it. Heat up 1 tablespoon of oil and stir-fry the green part of the spring onion first until the fragrance comes out.
Add beaten eggs and stir-fry it like scramble eggs. When you see the eggs still half runny, add rice and stir-fry it. Use a wooden spoon to gently press the rice and mix up to try to loose any lumps in the rice.
Add white part of spring onion and vegetables (carrot, sweet corn and peas) then keep stir-frying for another 30 seconds.
Add prawns and pineapple back in the wok and stir-fry for a further 20 seconds.
Add salt and soy sauce into rice and stir-fry for another 20 seconds. Ready.

Simple Chinese Garlic Chicken with Quinoa Salad

by Liv | Sep 1, 2016

Simple Chinese Garlic Chicken with Quinoa Salad. Quinoa has become a really popular grain/food in recent years. There are more and more talking about quinoa so I decided to get my hands on some of these little seeds. Yes, quinoa is actually a “seed” and it’s not to be confused with any kind of cereal.

Here are some of the health benefits of quinoa:

Quinoa is a nutritious dense grain.
Quinoa is gluten-free
Quinoa contains high levels of protein and is one of a few plants to do so
Consuming Quinoa regularly can help your body to reduce the risk of inflammation
Quinoa is also high in fibre so it can also help your body to maintain healthy levels of blood sugar
Consuming Quinoa in your diet regularly can also help your body reduce the risk of allergies
Lower your cholesterol and help maintain HDL cholesterol level.

Quinoa is also high in iron, B-vitamins, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and Vitamin E. So it’s no wonder people often called quinoa a superfood.

Before writing this blog post I had never eaten or cooked quinoa before so to be honest I just followed the instructions from the packaging on how to cook. Turns out it’s a really easy thing to cook.

I just love the texture of quinoa. i think it tastes better than cous cous and if you like your quinoa quite soft then you can add a bit more water to cook but if you like it a little al-dente then reduce the amount of the water you use to cook it.

Quinoa is not a typical food in Chinese cooking so I will say this dish is a bit like Chinese meats Western type of food. I use the marinade in this post for chicken legs really often and you can use the marinade with pretty much any kind of meat. You can also coat the meat with some flour, beaten eggs and breadcrumbs to deep-fry the chicken after marinading. You can also roast it in the oven and either way will taste really good. If you’re not a fan of chicken legs then you can use chicken breast instead.

What I will often do to save time and hassle is buy a few chicken legs or chicken breasts, depending on what I fancy, and marinade in this way then separate into smallish portions. I’ll bag them in a freezer bag, free them and that’s dinner sorted out for at least a couple meals.

This is an ideal week day dinner or lunch for any household.