GF: Pineapple and Shrimp Fried Rice

Okay…did you make rice? Probably a million times since diagnosis, I know. LOL

Here’s a relatively quick dish to make with your new rice making skills. We usually make fried rice with leftover rice from previous meals. It’s a great way to use up the little bits of whatever vegetables and meats that you have in the fridge too.

We’ve often used up leftovers in a fried rice dish that serves as our main course. Seldom have we made it as a side dish, but that’s possible too.

Fried rice recipes are as varied as people – THANK GOODNESS – and very forgiving for chefs too. If your wok is HOT HOT HOT (or your deep pan), then you can’t go wrong here. We often select ingredients because they are (1) in the fridge and (2) colorful. Easy, huh?

There are few fundamentals. Fried rice is made from the following ingredients plus a few choices from the optional list below:

• Rice (precooked)
• Garlic
• Onion
• Soy sauce
• Egg(s)

These ingredients (listed above) are varied in quantity for taste, texture, and flavor. For example, some people like to have their egg pieces visible in the fried rice. So they add a little oil to the hot wok and make a thin egg omelet before cooking anything else. This is then removed from the wok and set aside until the very end. When everything else is practically done, the egg omelet is sliced up into thin strips and mixed into the rest of the rice. The other school mixes the egg in with the rice almost at the end to help distribute the egg’s richness and to help the rice form some nice small clumps.

As far as what else you put in the fried rice? Well, that is only limited by your imagination. Here are some things we’ve put in to our fried rice before:

• Apple
• Asparagus
• Bamboo
• Beef
• Brussel sprouts
• Carrots
• Celery
• Chicken
• Chopped cabbage
• Fiddlehead ferns
• Fresh green beans (cut into thirds)
• Frozen or fresh corn
• Frozen peas
• Leeks
• Lemon or orange zest
• Peanuts
• Pineapple
• Pork
• Red, orange or yellow bell peppers
• Shrimp
• Sugar-snap peas
• Sweet potato (finely diced)

For the fried rice above, we loosely followed this recipe. I hope you get a chance to make some homemade fried rice. Just one word of warning, however. Once you’ve gone homemade with fried rice, you’ll NEVER crave the restaurant stuff again. (Why is that a warning? Well, some of you lucky people tell me that you have access to Chinese restaurants that will use your gluten-free soy sauce for you! The rest of us? We’ll just be eating this goodness at home.)

Pineapple and Shrimp Fried Rice
Serves 3 as a main dish

Ingredients
2 ½ cups of cooked rice (can be cold)
2 or 3 eggs
¾ cup frozen peas
¾ cup chopped, peeled carrot
3 cloves of garlic minced
¾ pound medium shrimp (peeled, deveined and soaked in rice wine or lemon juice)
¾ cup pineapple, cut into small pieces (1/2”)
3 Tablespoons oil
2 Tablespoon GF soy sauce (We use San J Gold Label, it’s perfect for all of our Chinese dishes)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Heat wok (or deep pan) to piping hot. Water droplets should dance across the pan excitedly!
2. Add 1 Tablespoon of the oil and heat thoroughly. Once the oil is hot, add the garlic, carrots, and shrimp. Stir fry until the shrimp is half way done (stirring frequently and keep the shrimp moving/flipping sides). Remove from the pan and reserve all (garlic, carrots, and shrimp).
3. Return the work to piping hot again. Add the remaining 2 Tablespoons of oil and heat again. Add rice and stir fry (fry while stirring continually to avoid the rice sticking) until the rice has been heated through.
4. Add pepper to taste.
5. Add remaining veggies (in this case, frozen peas) and continue to stir fry until the peas are warmed and the rice is host.
6. Return the shrimp, garlic and carrots to the pan.
7. Add soy sauce (2-3 Tablespoons to taste – depending on the saltiness of your soy sauce). NOTE: Fried rice is typically NOT dark in color but rather a light golden color with the soy sauce brining more flavor and a tinge of color. This is unlike most American fried rice restaurant recipes.
8. Continue to stir fry until well combined and the shrimp is practically cooked perfectly.
9. Add eggs. Continue to stir fry until the eggs are distributed and cooked through.
10. Add the pineapple and stir to mix evenly.
11. Serve hot alone or with egg rolls or a salad.

Happy Fried Rice making!
-Kate