Khao Pad Sapparot - stir fried rice and pineapple

This is an unusual recipe for Thai food because it is essentially a 
vegetarian dish - they are not common in Thailand, where even nominally 
vegetarian dishes often have quite a large amount of meat. This one has 
a little dried shrimp, and the true vegetarian could easily leave that 
out. 

It is also unusual in that it is rather a theatrical dish: though the 
theatricality comes from a Thai habbit of frugality, and perhaps a 
desire to have less dishes to wash! 

For two people you need a medium sized pineapple: choose carefully it 
should be sweet and juicy. 

--Ingredients
-- 

1 pineapple 
2/3 tablespoons of chopped shallots (purple onion) 
1/2 tablespoons grated ginger 
about 4/5 red chilis finely julienned. 
the green of 2 spring onions, coarsely chopped 
about 1 tablespoon of chopped coriander/cilantro 
2 tablespoons of dried shrimp 
2/3 tablespoons of garlic, coarsely chopped 
1-2 tablespoons of fish sauce 
1 teaspoon sugar 

you also need two cups of cold, steamed rice and coriander leaves as 
garnish. 

--Method
-- 

Cut the pineapple in half lengthwise, and scoop out the fruit (my wife 
uses a curved "grapefruit knife", but any knife will do...) then chop it 
into bite sized chunks. 

Put the fruit in a bowl and add the shallots, chili, ginger, scallion 
and coriander, mix and set aside. Add a pinch of salt to bring out the 
juice... 

In a wok, heat about a tablespoon of oil, and stir fry the shrimp until 
crispy, and the oil is aromatic. Remove the shrimp with a slotted spoon 
and drain, then set aside. 

Add a further tablespoon of oil, and stir fry the garlic until golden 
brown. Add the rice, and stir thoroughly. Add the fish sauce and sugar, 
and continue stirring. When the rice is heated through, add the 
pineapple mixture and cooked shrimp, and stir until thoroughly heated 
through. 

Pour the mixture into the pineapple shells, garnish and serve. 

Note: if you prefer fried rice to be darkish brown in colour, then 
replace half the fish sauce with dark sweet soy sauce. 

Variation: do not cook the fruit mixture. Instead put the fruit mixture 
and the stir fried rice in the fridge (separately) and chill all the 
ingredients, then just before serving mix them and put them in the 
pineapple skins. If you are serving cold then you can also add a few 
mareschino cherries as garnish. This cold variant makes an excellent 
counterpoint to hot curries and spicy chilli dishes on a hot day (and it 
gets *hot* here I can assure you, with the shade temperature topping 40 
celsius on many a day.)