I have no taste for strong Indian curry but I rather like Thai curry for the usage of ingredients and herbs that are familiar to Vietnamese cooking. I have observed this way of making curry before when my Indonesian friends came over to my home and cooked us some traditional Indonesian dishes, one of which was a curry dish. Some herbal and root ingredients are processed into paste – which is the curry paste itself. The way of using coconut milk instead of water to make the slightly thick soup is very authentic and typical to this kind of curry. Coconut milk makes the curry more flavorful though the soup is also fatter, but this is crucial to bring out the genuine taste.

Some prefer the soup to be thick but I’d rather cook it just slightly thick by using thinner coconut milk, which I feel more pleasant to eat. I also use fewer chilies to reduce the spiciness. Besides, I also cook with less oil. It is great to have this curry with hot steamed rice on cold days.

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I got this recipe from my cookbook "Culina Mundi". The book features selected dishes among the most popular dishes of world’s cuisines. This salad is originated in Cuba. Finding the recipe is easy to follow, and that I like having pineapple in the food I eat, so I made up my mind to make this salad for dinner. 

With salads that use mayonnaise to combine the ingredients, I often prefer to chill the salad before serving. I find having a cool salad more palatable. This salad, in particular, introduced to me a new taste and new experience about the world of salads. It was not so amazing to say "wow", but I liked it. 

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It takes time to prepare the squid, but takes only a few minutes to cook. We like eating squids but only when squids look fresh, I will buy some and they often take me longer time to wash them thoroughly, inside and outside, removing all the membrance and dirties, until the squid’s body is very white and clean. 

Stir-frying is a fast way of cooking squid and you’ll get a flavorful dish. Try this dish with pineapple, green ones preferred, and you will se how pineapples can go well with seafoods and reduce the fishiness smell of them. 

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This is a Vietnamese version of pineapple fried rice. It is more simple and requires less ingredients. No meat or protein is added to this fried rice, except for the fish sauce which is typical in Vietnamese cooking. So, it is suitable as a vegetarian dish if you replace fish sauce with salt. 

The rice is bounded with plentiful flavor of ripe pineapple. When I feel like eating fried rice, I often cook double the rice for an usual meal, and set aside half of the cooked rice in the fridge. Why putting in the fridge? Because the rice get drier and firmer, which makes you to cook perfect fried rice. 

So try this to know how Vietnamese pineapple fried rice is like. 

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Pineapple is our favorite fruit for dessert. Pineapple is not only cheap but is believed to have many good health benefits. Ripe pineapples are rich and deep in flavor, we can enjoy the fruits plain as they are. 

When we want to make something different and more interesting into pineapple pieces, doing flambe is a frequent choice. The taste of the pineappes is enhanced to be more flavorful and fragrant by the use of good quality butter, brown sugar and rum. Doing flambe makes a simple and plain fruit become really more elegant and up-standard. 

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My simple chicken soup with bitter gourds and young pineapple chunks.

Cooking for two people, I used only two chicken wings. Using the boned parts of the chicken offers better stock to the soup. Also, I only prefer the very small bitter gourds with dark green color to cook with this soup.  

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I love pineapple and I really like this upside-down pineapple cake. The name with "upside-down" sounds interesting and not familiar to me, so I was wonderring how it would be like. The cake with bright yellow color really excited me and pleased my eyes. 

The cake is very moist, soft and full of pineapple flavor. Pineapple slices are caramelized into a marvelous color. And I have nothing to complain about the taste. Just great. 

Ingredients: (one square pan 20cm or one 8” round pan)

- 1 medium pineapple, cut into round slices of 0.5-1cm thick, core removed

- 120g unsalted butter, softened

- 100g white sugar plus 70g sugar for making caramel 

- 2 eggs, separated 

- 200g plain flour

- 20g corn starch

- 2 tsp. baking powder

- 125ml milk

- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Methods:

- Preheat the oven to 165C.

- Place 70g sugar in a small saucepan, add just enough water to cover the sugar, simmer over low heat, stir lightly until the mixture start to caramelize, then quickly pour the caramelized sugar into the baking pan. 

- With an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the yolks and beat until just combined.  

- Mix together the flour, baking powder and corn starch. Add to the yolk mixture, pour in the milk and beat until smooth. 

- In another bowl, beat the egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks formed. Fold the egg whites into the flour mixture. 

- Arrange the pineapple slices into the pan, pour the batter over, smooth the top. 

- Bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and invert the cake.

Thai pineapple fried rice is quite well-known when mentioning about Thai food. There are many varieties of this fried rice. When I travelled to Phuket in Thailand, I was impressed by the pineapple fried rice served at Rang Hill restaurant. So, when making this fried rice, I tried to cook it as similar as the one I ate, according to my memory. 

For fried rice, the steamed rice should be prepared in advance. Because cooked rice will be used for frying, you can cook it a bit drier than normal, and let the rice cool completely. You can cook the the rice on the day before and reserve in the fridge, the rice will also become drier. 

Ingredients: (serves 2-3)

- 2 cups cooked rice 

- 10-12 large shrimps, peeled and deveined

- 1/2 large pineapple, cut into chunks

- 1 medium carrot, diced

- 1/2 cup peas

- 1 egg, lightly beaten

- 1/4 cup roasted cashew nuts 

- 1/4 cup golden raisin

- half a garlic cloves, finely chopped

- 1 small red onion, finely chopped 

- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder

- vegetable oil, as needed

- 1 tbs fish sauce (or more, to taste) 

Cooking:

- Marinate the shrimp with a little fish sauce. 

- Heat a little oil in a large frying pan, add half of the garlic and onion, cook for 1 minute, add the prawns. When the prawns start to turn pink, add the carrot and peas, cook together for another 2 minutes, remove from the pan. Set aside. 

- Add a little more oil to the pan and cook the remaining garlic and onion for 1 minute. Add the rice and enough fish sauce, stir-fry for about 5 minutes. Add the egg, stir well to coat the rice evenly. 

- Combine the turmeric powder with about 1/2 tbs water, then add to the rice, stir well. 

- Return the prawns, carrot and peas to the pan. Add pineapple chunks, stir constantly for a few minutes. Add the raisins and cashew nuts, adjust the seasoning, then remove from the heat.

- Serve while the rice is still hot or warm.