Punaweb Cookbook: sharing favorite recipes

[Devany]

This recipe was featured in an article I wrote on sustainable tourism for Edible Hawaiian Islands. I developed it while staying at rental in Puna.

Hawaiian Pineapple Sitr Fried Rice
© Devany Vickery-Davidson, Dinner Party Cooking School

I took Ming Tsai’s basic Fried Rice recipe from the cookbook, Breath of A Wok by Grace Young and Aland Richardson and “Hawaiianized” it for this classic Hawaiian treatment of the Hawaiian staple of rice. In Hawaii, rice is served with every meal, even breakfast. At lunch & dinner it is commonly served even when other starches are present. Rice is also one of the few foods so important to the Hawaiian diet that is not grown/harvested in Hawaii. Fried Rice was the first recipe that Ming learned as a 10 year old boy in his mother’s restaurant, the Mandrin Kitchen in Dayton, Ohio. Interestingly, my husband grew up in Dayton and remembers going there as a young adult on dates! Talk about a small world. You can also add “leftovers” in this recipe. I often add fresh water chestnuts, slivered carrots, diced red peppers, bean sprouts, mushrooms, small shrimp, tofu celery etc.

Serves 4 to 6 as a side dish or 2 people as an entrée

Ingredients:

A fresh medium sized ripe pineapple
2 tablespoons minced ginger
1 tablespoon palm sugar, brown sugar or sugar in the raw

4 cups of cold leftover rice ( I generally use Brown Jasmine or Basamati but this can be done with any rice except sweet rice or sushi rice)

2 tablespoons canola or peanut oil
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 large eggs beaten
1 Chinese Sausage (Lop Chung) or Chinese Red Pork (Char Siu), cut into 1/8 inch dice *see note
4 scallions sliced on the diagonal
2 large shallots or 1 Maui onion finely chopped
¾ cup frozen peas
2 Tablespoons minced garlic
2 Hawaiian hot chile peppers or 1 red Thai chile or Serano chile, finely diced.
¼ cup Chinese Celery tops (omit if you cannot find this)
1 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons of palm sugar, brown sugar or sugar in the raw (divided)
¼ teaspoon white pepper
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

½ cup toasted chopped macadamia nuts

Method:

1. Cut the pineapple in half lengthwise, and scoop out the fruit. You can use a pineapple cutter or a curved grapefruit knife. Reserve ½ of the pineapple meat and cut the remaining pineapple into chunks about ¾ of an inch in size.

2. Brush the inside of the two pineapple halves with oil or spray with cooking spray. Place in a 375 degree oven or on a grill inside facing down till the pineapple starts to brown slightly (about 10 minutes).

3. In a large bowl place the pineapple and ginger. Stir in 1 Tablespoon of sugar. Stir. This brings out the juices in the pineapple and ginger.

4. Heat a large flat bottomed wok or skillet until a bead of water vaporizes within 1-2 seconds of contact. Stir in one tablespoon of the canola oil and one tablespoon of the sesame oil. Add the eggs and 30 seconds to one minute till the egg has set, swirling the pan so that you get a flat pancake of egg. Transfer the egg to a cutting board and cut into strips. Reserve.

5. Swirl in the remaining two oils and turn up the heat to high. Add garlic, chili peppers, Chinese celery, shallots and stir fry 30 seconds. Add the Chinese Sausage or Char Siu. Stir fry for 1 minute. Add peas, scallions, rice, pineapple/ginger mixture and stir fry another minute.

6. Combine fish sauce., remaining sugar and soy sauce and add to the stir fry. Toss in egg shreds and cilantro. Sprinkle with white pepper and taste. Adjust if needed.

7) Pour the mixture into the pineapple shells. Keep warm in a 250 degree oven till ready to serve. I feel that warming the rice in the pineapple adds additional flavors.

8) Garnish with the mac nuts.

* NOTE: Other protein can be used in place or in addition to the Chinese Sausage, but I believe that pork adds the best flavor. The sausages are available at Chinese Markets/Butcher Shops and look like a small dry skinny salami. You can also use Chinese “Red Pork” Char Siu. Or smoked ham or bacon for this. I personally like the Char Siu best and found it easily in Hawaii. You could also use smoked turkey legs or even leftover smoked chicken if you are on a diet.



Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

Devany Vickery-Davidson
East Bay Potters
www.eastbaypotters.com