Prawn Congee Recipe

Whenever fall is here, I start to yearn for some old-fashioned, traditional Chinese comfort foods - so with my last feature being one of my favourite Cantonese style '0ld-fire' soups, today I feature yet another famous comfort food, the congee. Congee is available in all kinds of versions in most Asian cultures - today's simple recipe is a flavourful and 'sweet' congee with tiger prawns. The 'sweetness' referred to here is not of the sugary sweet variety but rather, a sixth flavour if you will that is more related to 'freshness'. I like to boil my prawn congee with tiger prawns (shell-on) as the shells really provide a better dimension to the taste. As with most seafood, the length of which the prawns are boiled in the congee is of paramount importance, it just takes a bit of awareness on the cook's part and in no time, you will have a 'feel' for how long you should cook the prawns to achieve the right amount of 'bite' while escaping the sad taste of overcooked, rubbery prawns!



You may add more variety of seafood into the congee as well and you will then have seafood congee! It is really simple and with a little bit of imagination, you can maximise the ingredients you have left in your fridge and create some new recipes that you can tuck away in your apron. I like to marinate my prawns mostly in Chinese rice wine, a bit of ginger and mirin before putting them into the congee to mask the fishiness while adding some fragrance to the mix.



Ingredients:
1/2 cup of white rice (soaked for 30 minutes to 1 hour)
10 cups of water (you can substitute 2 cups of water with chicken broth for even more flavour)
10 tiger prawns (shell-on, heads-on is even better if you feel so inclined)
2 inches worth of fresh ginger (cut into small slices, leave 1/2 inch unchopped)
2 stalks green onions, sliced

Marinade:
6 tbsps of Chinese rice wine
1 tbsp Mirin
Dash of sesame oil
1 tsp salt

At the table:
Soy sauce (to taste)
Sesame oil (optional)
White pepper (to taste)



Method:

First, wash the rice accordingly and soak for at least 30 minutes - this step is to ensure a smoother consistency for the congee. Meanwhile, marinate the prawns. Boil the soaked rice together with the water/broth and unchopped ginger in a large pot, once brought to a boil, turn the heat lower to medium low and let boil until it reaches congee consistency. There is really no hard and fast rule for the consistency of the congee, it really depends on personal preferences, add more or less rice according to desire.

Once you have achieved the consistency you desire, drop the marinated prawns in and watch closely. I only boiled the prawns for about 2-3 minutes to ensure that they didn't get overcooked - remember that the prawns will continue to 'cook' in the hot congee even after the heat is turned off. Ladle into individual bowls, and add as much green onions, ginger as you like - add dashes of soy, sesame oil and white pepper to your liking. Congee to me is best served piping, tongue-burningly hot!

Chinese Peanut Soup with Spareribs Recipe

Well, fall is here and with the cold weather (at least it is cold for me), now is the perfect time to enjoy yet another bowl of steaming hot soup from my kitchen! This time, I am featuring a well-loved Cantonese slow-boiled soup (or old-fire soup) with peanuts as the main ingredient. I love using peanuts as you can just buy a few packets and keep them in the fridge, no washing, chopping and no need to worry about whether it will go bad (it won't for a reasonable period of time). You can buy these peanuts neatly packed at most Asian grocery stores and definitely a great soup-ready ingredient to have in your kitchen.



I teamed the handy peanuts with my obligatory dried cuttlefish and some spare ribs this time. Definitely one of my best and simplest form of comfort food - try it and you may discover another handy recipe you fall back on whenever you need some authentic Chinese comfort food! For my Chinese counterparts, I hope this post reminds you of the old fashioned goodness of home-cooked Chinese peanut soup!



Ingredients:
1 packet of peanuts
8 inches worth of spare ribs (or more depending on preference)
12 cups of water
2 dried cuttlefish (rinsed)
Salt, to taste



Method:

First, blanch the spare ribs in hot water to get rid of impurities, remove from water and discard the water. Next, heat 12 cups of water in a soup pot until boiling - put in the peanuts, blanched pork and cuttlefish. Turn heat to low and boil for about 4 hours, checking occasionally.

After 4 hours, check for taste and add salt as desired.

Pork with Bitter Melon Stir-fry Recipe

As promised, I am returning with a recipe, albeit this is my mom's recipe (and cooking); yes the food blogger gets to take a break when mom is around! Bitter melon or bitter gourd (苦瓜) as its' namesake implies, is very bitter. Of course, different sub-species will provide a different intensity level of bitterness - nevertheless I think there is also an underlying sweet taste to the bitter melon. I recall in my childhood days when my parents will try to force my siblings and I to eat these bitter vegetables/ fruit much to our dismay. However, I think I have finally acquired the taste for these unique and nutritious bitter melons - they taste really delicious even in a simple stir-fry as showcased today. It is quite interesting is it not, on how one's perceptions of so many things including food change with (adequate) time.




Writing about this dish reminds me of a Chinese saying, "苦盡甘來" which can loosely be translated to "once the end of bitterness is reached, sweetness arrives". The 'sweet' taste referred to here is not of the sugary sweet variety, this dimension of sweetness is described in Chinese as '甘' and unfortunately I don't think there is a direct translation for this 'dimension' of taste in the English language.




Bitter melons are also a favourite vegetable used in the perennial Malaysian hawker favourite, 'yong tau foo' where fish paste is stuffed into the vegetable and then steamed or deep-fried. In today's simple stir-fry dish, the pork slices complement the bitter melons perfectly, providing a unique yet tasty flavour. The texture of the bitter melons resembles that of the winter melon and also to a certain extent, the cantaloupe which has a relatively firmer texture.

Ingredients:


1 bitter gourd, peeled and seeded - marinate with 1/2 tsp salt for a crunchier texture (30 minutes)
1/2 pound of pork, sliced to bite-sized pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
About 1 tsp of dark soy sauce
1-2 tsps of cooking oil


Method:

After marinating the bitter melon slices in salt for about 30 minutes, gently 'squeeze' the slices to get rid of the excess salt. Next, heat the cooking oil in a wok on high heat. Turn to medium heat, then place the minced garlic and fry till fragrant (don't let them turn brown), then add the pork slices to the wok.

Stir-fry the pork until almost cooked, then add the dark soy sauce. Finally, add in the previously blanched bitter melon slices, add a sprinkling of salt to taste, and then add about 1-2 tbsps of water. Turn the heat up until the water evaporates and transfer to a serving plate. Serve hot with rice.