by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: August 07, 2008

To make shrimp fried rice from scratch is not as difficult as one may assume. In most instances, recipes will assume that the shrimp - if not perhaps the rice as well - have been pre-cooked but let us in this instance assume that is not the case and all our ingredients are in their basic, raw form.

For two people, you will require:

1 1/2 cups of long-grain or basmati rice

10 to 12 large, raw, uncleaned shrimp
1 (1/2" thick) ring of pineapple, roughly chopped
1 clove of garlic (crushed or very finely chopped)
1/2 tsp of freshly grated ginger
Salt and pepper to taste

The first step is to put the rice on to cook. Rinse it under cold water to remove as much of the starch as possible and cook in boiling water per the instructions on the packet. When it is ready, either leave it to cool naturally or place it in a sieve under some cold running water to accelerate the process.

To clean the shrimp, if you are right-handed, hold the body between the thumb and first finger of your left hand and very gently twist the head away from you with the same two fingers of your right hand, remove it and discard. Starting underneath, then carefully peel the outer shell away and discard. The shrimp should then be de-veined by running a very sharp knife very gently along the centre of the back and removing the thin black tendril that is the shrimp's intestine. Note that shrimp in their raw form are an unattractive greyish colour and only turn pink when cooked.

Assuming the rice to be cool, the next step is to fry the shimp, garlic and ginger in a very hot wok with one tablespoon of sunflower oil for a minute or at most two until the shrimp turn pink all the way through and are cooked. Remove from the wok and roughly chop. Add more oil to the wok, fluff the rice with a fork to separate the grains and fry to heat through, then re-add the shrimp mixture and the pineapple. Flash fry for another thirty seconds or so, stirring all the time with a wooden spatula. Remove from the heat, season well and after a final good stir the shrimp fried rice is ready to serve.

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