Did you know coconut milk can go bad?

I had pineapple fried rice for the first time a few months ago and fell in love. It had this lovely curried coconut flavor along with the pineapple bits and a beautiful yellow color that is so appealing. A few weeks ago I made my own version because I was creating a waste-free one-woman menu for my mom and needed to use up some coconut milk.

Problem is, I didn't write it down.

Tonight I decided to re-try the pineapple fried rice recipe I made for my mom's menu. I finished cooking the rice with the onion and curry powder and everything was sticking more than usual because I decided to try a lower fat "saute" with water (bad plan). My coconut milk was in a plastic container because I'd made a curry earlier in the week and I was having a lot of trouble getting the lid off which seemed odd. But once it was open and I saw the weird brownish color the top had achieved I could see why it was sticking. I thought "maybe this is like cheese, I can take off the gross stuff on top and the underside will be fine" but after scraping off the top layer and bravely tasting the tangy, frothy milk I knew that was not the case (ick).

So this is pineapple fried rice without coconut milk

Coconut-Free Pineapple Fried Rice

1 teaspoon olive oil (its so not worth doing without)
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon curry powder (mine is extremely mild McCormick's, hence the curry paste)
1 1/2 cups cooked white rice
2 tablespoons vegetable stock or water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon red curry paste
1/2 small can pineapple chunks, cut smaller if you wish (keep all the juice from the can)
1 egg, beaten

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium high heat.

Add the onions and cook until tender and translucent. Add the garlic and curry powder and cook for a minute more

Add the rice and cook for a minute more.

(This was the point when I realized I had no coconut milk, but if yours has not gone off, you can add about 1/4 cup here and skip the stock/water....also go easy on the pineapple juice)

Now mix in the stock or water, soy sauce, curry paste and the juice from the pineapples. Make sure you get all the chunks of curry paste mixed in and then add the pineapple chunks.

Squish everything over to one half of the pan and pour the egg into the other half and scramble it around until it starts to set up. Slowly mix the rice mixture in as you scramble until the whole pan is one big sticky rice mixture.

Make sure to taste and add any salt, pepper or additional curry powder at this point.

You could add some frozen peas and carrots at this point and cook until they heated. Some cilantro or Thai basil is a nice addition right at the end as well.

It still wasn't quite as good as the first time, but it was my cooking adventure for the evening.