RECIPE: SOUR PRAWNS AND PINEAPPLE (GULAI UDANG DAN NENAS)

If your household is anything like mine, my kids go through fads – one day they like something, the next day it’s poisonous! So I have to come up with ideas to ‘trick’ them into eating things. My latest trickery is to do with pineapples.

It must be pineapple season up north in Queensland, as we can get them quite cheaply here in Canberra. Unfortunately, the kids seemed turn off already with pineapples, and I was going to make pineapple jam (for jam tarts). Unfortunately I am quite time poor at the moment. So, I had this dilemma of what to do with the couple of pineapples that Mr G bought last weekend.

So, in line with the STOP FOOD WASTE Campaign, I decided to use half the pineapple to make SOUR PRAWNS AND PINEAPPLE and the rest to make THAI STYLE PINEAPPLE FRIED RICE. I’ll post the recipe for the fried rice in the next few days.

One lesson to learn from going shopping, and any shopping – something is only cheap if you need it and are going to use it. The pineapples may have been cheap, but if they were commissioned to the bin, that would have defeated the purpose, wouldn’t it???

Ingredients
½ kg green prawns – shelled with heads and tails left intact
2 heaped tbsp tamarind mixed with ½ cup warm water – extract juice but do not discard the pulp
2 tbsp oil
1 cup water
¼ pineapple – cut into bite sized pieces
Salt
Sugar – optional
Grind the following with minimal water or oil
4 slices galangal/lengkuas
8 candlenuts (or substitute with macadamia nuts)
1 cm fresh turmeric or ½ tsp turmeric powder – fresh is nicer
1 tsp belachan
6 to 8 large red fresh chillies – halved and deseeded but you may leave some seeds intact if you want the dish to be a bit spicy
10 shallots or two large red onions

Method
Heat oil in a heavy pan (I used a clay pot) and fry the ground spices until aromatic (around 5 to 7 mins).

Add one cup of water and the pineapple and cook uncovered for 5 mins. Add the tamarind juice and simmer for 2 mins. In the mean time, extract another ½ cup of juice from the left over pulp and set aside.

Add in the prawns and salt and cook for 2 mins. Taste and if the dish is not sour enough (remember it should be sour), add more of the tamarind juice. Lift when the prawns are done and serve hot with rice.