Beef & pineapple stir-fried

Using green (young) pineapple in cooking salad, soup or stir-fried dishes is very popular in Vietnamese cuisine. The local pineapples are often small with the size about 15 – 20 cm in length. These are the most favourite pineapples because of their deep taste and sharp sweetness as compared with the bigger ones.

When pineapples are still green (young), they can be used in cooking great dishes. These pineapples add the mild sourness to the dishes and provides them with attractive pineapple fragrance. They can be eaten raw as a complement to other richer and heavier dishes, or as a component of green salad.

This time I made a stir-fried dish with beef and pineapple. In Singapore, I could only get the large pineapples, most of which when sold in the supermarkets are quite ripe. I had to choose the least unripe one to make this dish. After stir-frying, the pineapple chunks would turn more yellowish. This dish is best served with steamed white rice.

Ingredients: (serve 2)

- 150g lean beef, thinly sliced

- Half a garlic clove, finely chopped

- 1 tsp fish sauce ( or 1/4 tsp salt)

- 1 tsp oyster sauce

- 1/2 young small pineapple, cut into chunks

- 1 small onion, cut into wedges

- 1 stalk of Chinese celery (or flat-leaf parsley), cut into 3-4cm long strips

- Vegetable oil, as needed, to stir-fry,

- Ground black pepper, to serve

Cooking:

- Marinate the beef with garlic, fish sauce, oyster sauce for 10 – 15 minutes.

- Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat, add the marinated beef and quickly stir-fry. When the beef just changes its color, transfer to a separate bowl, return any sauce from the beef back to the pan.

- Add onion and pineapple chunks to the pan, stir-fry until they are nearly done then return the beef, cook for another 2 minutes, stir well to combine. Just before removing the pan from heat, add Chinese celery, mix well.

- Serve with ground black pepper.