dinok

📍 London, United Kingdom

Member since March 2009

My pic is four of us in Portsmouth earlier this year.

I do aromatherapy n massage for a living.One of the most rewarding jobs when you make a difference to someone. I live just north of London with wonderfully loopy wife n two babbling kids. Once in a while I will put up one of my food creations here:

Pineapple Stir-fried Rice by Dinesh Kotecha

This delicious and exclusive recipe is based on a family tradition. My version is healthier (with olive oil), more exotic (pineapple and coconut), and ideal as part of a multi-course meal (starters, curry with breads, rice with dhal, and desert). Served in the pineapple shell, it makes a wonderful centre-piece when entertaining. It serves 4 people as a main dish or 6-8 people as part of a meal.

Preparation time: 45 minutes Cooking time: 30 minutes Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients
Main
300g Rice (white or brown, basmati or long-grain)
Pineapple (1 large or 2 small).
50g Desiccated Coconut

Additional (Use all, skip according to taste, or add others that you prefer.)
2 sweet peppers (bell or long, red, green, orange or mixed)
50g baby corn
20g Cashew nuts
50g Raisins
1 medium Tomato
2-3 spring onions
Half a lemon

Spices
1 Medium Onion (white or Spanish red for extra sweetness and colour)
4 cloves of Garlic
1-inch piece of Ginger
2 medium-hot Chillies
Half teaspoon each of:
Whole cumin seeds
Dhana-Jeeru (coriander seed/cumin seed mixed powder)
Turmeric
A small piece of cinnamon
4 cloves
1 cardamom

Olive oil
Salt to taste
Coriander (Cilantro)


Method
Pre-cook the rice. Do not over-cook, as it will be re-fried for a few minutes at the end of the recipe.
Finely chop the onion, garlic, and tomatoes. Finely grate the ginger. You can finely chop or grate the chillies, or cut them into rings. Keep each item separate for now.
The peppers can either be diced, or cut into strips. The baby corn should be broken into small or medium pieces. Chop the spring onion into one inch pieces.
To prepare the pineapple(s)
· Slice in half LENGTHWAYS
· Scoop the pineapple out, taking care not to damage the shell. You may find it easier to go around the edge of the pineapple with a sharp flexible knife such as a filleting knife.
· From the scooped out pineapple, remove and discard the inedible core, collect any juice in a bowl, and chop the pineapple into medium to small pieces

In a hot dry pan toast the coconut, stirring continuously to ensure it does not burn. When it starts to go a golden colour, add the cashew nuts and raisins, and continue to stir. Remove from heat as soon as the cashew nuts start to go brown.
Heat one tablespoon of olive oil. Add the cinnamon, cloves and cardamom seeds. Reduce the heat and lightly fry for one minute. Add the coconut mixture, and continue to stir for another two minutes. Add the raisins. As soon as the raisins start to puff up, add the pineapple with any juice, and increase the heat until the mixture is sizzling. Cook for two minutes, stirring continuously. Remove from heat.
Another pan, heat one tablespoon of olive oil. Reduce the heat, but have it high enough to keep the mixture sizzling at all times, and keep stirring throughout the process.
· First add the onions and garlic. When the onion begins to look transparent, add the chillies and continue to stir for one minute.
· Now add the salt, turmeric, Cumin and dhana-jeeru. Stir for another minute.
· Add the ginger, and stir for another minute.
· Now add the chopped vegetable mix, stir thoroughly to ensure that the vegetables are coated in spices, then reduce heat and simmer covered for about five minutes. Check to ensure that the mixture is not burning or sticking to the pan.
· When the vegetable mix is cooked, add the tomatoes and squeeze in lemon juice to taste.

Add the rice to the mixture, and carefully fold it in so that the spices and vegetables are evenly mixed in. Cook for a couple of minutes.

Add the pineapple and coconut mixture and blend it into the rice, taking care not to break the rice or make it go mushy. Increase the heat and stir for another couple of minutes to ensure that everything is piping hot.

Stir in finely chopped coriander to taste, reserving some coriander for the garnish.


To Serve:

Spoon the rice back into the empty pineapple shells, and garnish with the remaining coriander. Serve as a main meal with yoghurt, chutneys and a salad, or as part of a multi-course meal.