Bratwurst and Pineapple Rice Bowl
current situation: bratwurst pineapple rice bowl with thai chilies, bell peppers, onions, and soy reduction
Bratwurst in a rice bowl sounds like two cuisines arguing and it is one of the best things I make. Pork and pineapple is an old pairing; the sausage just brings its own seasoning with it.
Caramelise the pineapple before anything else touches it. Dry pan, hot, cut side down, until it is browned at the edges. Pineapple that goes in with everything else releases its juice and the whole pan turns into a wet stew instead of a glaze.
The brats are already smoked. They go in at the very end, just to warm through and pick up the sauce.
- Feeds
- 4
- Hands-on
- 30 minutes
- Pineapple
- Caramelised first, alone
- Brats
- In last
What you need
The bowl
- 6 bratwurst, cooked or smoked, sliced on the angle
- 1/2 a fresh pineapple, in 3/4-inch chunks
- 2 red bell peppers, in wide strips
- 2 onions, in thick strips
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced
- 4 Thai chillies, sliced (from my garden)
- 2 tbsp neutral oil
The soy reduction
- 2/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 thumb ginger, grated
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil, off the heat
To serve
- 4 cups cooked white rice
- 1/2 cup roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
- 4 spring onions, sliced
How it goes
1 — Reduce the soy mixture to a syrup first
Everything but the sesame oil in a small pan, simmered twelve minutes until it coats a spoon. Sesame oil in off the heat. Set aside.
2 — Caramelise the pineapple in a dry pan
Hot, dry, no oil, chunks laid in one layer and not touched for three minutes. They brown and the edges go dark. Out onto a plate.
3 — Onions hard, four minutes
Oil in the same pan, onions in, left to catch colour on one side before being moved.
4 — Peppers two minutes, garlic and chillies last
Peppers tossed in for two minutes so they soften but keep their colour, then the garlic and sliced Thai chillies for thirty seconds.
5 — Pineapple and bratwurst back in
Both returned to the pan, folded through, two minutes just to heat the sausage. The brats are cooked already; this is about warming and coating.
6 — Reduction in, tossed, off the heat
Poured over and tossed until everything is glossy and dark. Thirty seconds. Any longer over heat and the sugar tightens into toffee.
pro tip — If the pan looks wet rather than glossy, turn the heat up for another thirty seconds. You want the sauce clinging to things, not sitting under them.
7 — Over rice, peanuts and spring onion on top
Rice in the bowl, the mix spooned over with all its sauce, then chopped peanuts and spring onion thrown over at the last second so they stay crisp.
Current situation. Four Thai chillies is a choice and I would make it again. LFG.