Summary

Recipe Story

It might seem like a foreign concept heating a pre-prepped main course, but sometimes... it's a life saver. Not only is the pressure off, but you can use your saved time/money to make some kickass side dishes!

Ingredients

How to make Tropical Rice/Exotic Fruit - 2 for 10

Heat a medium pot over a medium flame, add the rice, chicken stock (or water), and 1 tablespoon butter. Bring to a boil
Finely chop your small onion and 3 garlic cloves and sweat them by placing in a pan over a medium-low heat for just a couple minutes. Add 2 tablespoons butter, salt and pepper. Stir often, we don't want them to burn. Stop when they're soft, and lightly golden. when finished, remove from the heat source
Once the rice is boiling, reduce to a simmer, stir once, and cover with a tight-fitting lid. We're going to leave it like that for about 20 minutes
Time to prep the fruit! The star fruit is easy, just cut horizontally into star-shaped slices. The Papaya is a little more involved, but not much more difficult. Take a spoon and scoop the seeds into a bowl (easy cleanup), then use the spoon to scoop out the papaya. Chop about a 1/3 of it for the rice. The rest is going to go into our exotic fruit salad.
Pretty much the same thing for the canned pineapple. Chop about a 1/3 for the rice, and the rest for the salad. Drain the can and SAVE the juice!
Finally, toast some of the coconut in a pan by stirring over a medium heat until golden. Make sure you keep stirring so it doesn't burn.
With 20 minutes up, stir your papaya and pineapple, onion and garlic into the rice. If you have a little ginger, add that sucker in there for a sweet kick. Take the rest of your pineapple and papaya, along with the toasted coconut and a little of the pineapple juice to make a cool exotic fruit salad. If you want, use your hollowed out papaya for a serving bowl!
Now, if you went my route and heated pre-prepped coconut shrimp, make sure you make yourself a dipping sauce. A couple suggestions of mine would be: apricot preserves mixed with course mustard, honey mixed with a little hot sauce and nutmeg, or even your standard sweet n' sour!