So I took over cooking duties on Saturday but D was having a throat infection so options were slightly limited.
Decided to go with congee, also known as Jook or simply rice porridge. Have to remember to take pictures the next time I'm doing this.
There's this porridge stall near my workplace that I eat at once or twice a week. They sell a flavourful bowl of porridge for $2.50. After trying to concoct a simple bowl of porridge, my respect for the flavour they are able to coax into one bowl of porridge has gone up leaps and bounds.
Ingredients:
1) Short grain rice
2) Water (lots of it)
3) Chicken fillets
4) Minced Pork
5) Ginger, minced
6) Garlic, minced
7) Corn
8) Spring Onions
9) Salt, to taste
10) Hua Tiao wine, 1 tsps
11) Sugar, 0.5 tsps
12) Soy sauce, 0.5 tsps
13) Cornstarch, 1.5 tsps
14) Canola oil, 2 tsps
Bear in mind though that you don't need ALL the ingredients listed up there. The kids are not really fans of minced pork in porridge, that'll be me. S likes corn so I was leaning towards corn porridge for her. D likes shredded chicken porridge so that was for him.
(PORK) Begin by marinating the minced pork with the minced ginger and garlic. Stir in the Hua Tiao wine, half a teaspoon of salt, half of teaspoon of sugar, half of teaspoon of soy sauce, 1 and a half teaspoons of corn flour and 2 teaspoons of canola oil. Once mixed, set it to rest in the fridge till it is needed.
(CHICKEN) Still on prepping, boil up some water and cook up the chicken fillets. This shouldn't take more than 8 minutes. Poke the fillets with a fork to check for doneness. The fork should be able to pierce the fillets easily to indicate that it is cooked. Take it out of the boiling water and proceed to shred it with a fork.
(CORN) Slice up one ear of corn and set the kernels aside.
Chop up the spring onions and set that aside.
I wanted fried shallots but forgot that I had run out at home.
The thing about cooking congee is the rice to water ratio. I went with 1 cup of rice (my cup was 160ml) to 12 cups of water. In total I used 3 cups of rice, which called for 36 cups of water (roughly 4.8 litres of water).
My pot was too small for this so I had 2 litres of water simmering on another fire while I was cooking the porridge, adding in water each time I gave it a stir. Anyway, 3 cups of rice results in too much congee, I've found. We only managed to finish about a third of it so I'll be sticking to 1 cup of rice in the future.
Time to cook the congee!
1) Wash up the rice
2) Add the rice and water into the largest pot you have.
3) Cover the pot and let the water boil.
4) Once the water has boiled, lower the fire so as to simmer the congee.
5) 15 minutes later, lift the lid, stir the congee - making it a point to ensure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot.
6) Cover and simmer, stirring again after another 15 minutes.
7) Repeat step 6 another 2 times for a total simmer time of 60 minutes.
8) Lower the fire to its minimum
(PORK) Ladle out some congee into a smaller pot, add in minced pork, breaking it up and cook it for 5 minutes. Season with salt to taste.
(CHICKEN & CORN) Ladle out some congee into a smaller pot, add in the shredded chicken and cook for about a minute, throwing in the corn kernels in the last 20 seconds or so. Season with salt to taste.
9) Garnish with spring onions. Shallots (wish I had those). Season with soy sauce and pepper.
D ended up with shredded chicken congee
S ended up with shredded chicken and corn congee
J ended up with minced pork and corn congee
I ended up with minced pork congee.
Kinda a helpful dish to have if your family has to eat the same dish with slight variations.
Verdict? I found my congee to be too plain. Have to experiment a few more times to coax out more flavour. Perhaps using the water that the chicken fillets were boiled in as part of the stock to cook the congee.
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