Fish Congee

Weather has been so hot and humid of late that all I wanted was soupy and easy to eat food.  Since we had a fish head and some fish bones in our freezer, why not make some fish stock and cook congee out of it? I prefer congee cooked from soup stocks because the congee are more flavourful cooked that way! More work but all worthwhile.  This healthy fish congee makes a great meal for toddlers, children and adults. One pot for all :)

Fish Congee
2l fish stock
1 cup rice (soaked for 30min at least with a few drops of oil and 1/4 tsp salt)
White Fish slices
3 tbsp minced meat (seasoned with 2 tsp soy sauce, a dash of pepper, 1/2 tsp sesame oil & 1 tsp cornflour)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Spring onion, fried onion & pepper- for garnishing & taste

1. Bring fish stock to boil, drain rice water and pour rice into fish stock. Allow to come to boil and let it be on medium heat, letting rice cooked and thicken into congee texture.
2. Add in white fish slices into boiling thickening congee, spoon into small teaspoons of minced meat and stir well with a ladle to allow congee to cook evenly.
3. When fish slices and minced meat are cooked, season congee with salt to taste.
4. Garnish with spring onion cubes, fried onion, pepper and serve immediately.


How to make Fish Stock?
Bones and head of 1 garoupa, wash and dried briefly with kitchen towel
8-10 dried scallops or 4 medium sized scallops, rinsed
3 stalks of spring onion
1 carrot, skinned and diced
3 to 4 slices of ginger
2.5 litres of water

1. Place water in a big pot, place in dried scallops, spring onion stalks, carrot and bring to boil.
2. In a non-stick pan, heat 1/2 tsp oil and add in ginger slices and fry till fragrant. Add in fish head and bones and pan fried till 3/4 cooked. If you have stock bags, you can place the fish head and bones into 2 or 3 stock bags and place them into the main stock pot, otherwise scoop pan fried fish head and bones directly into stock pot.
3. Allow stock pot to come to a boil, lower heat and let it be on a rolling simmer for 1 or 1.5h. Fish stock is ready for soups, hotpots or congee. (Remove fish head and bones before using for cooking congee)

Century Egg, Minced Pork, Peanut & Dried Scallop Congee 皮蛋猪肉花生干贝粥

I have got a wonderful thermal cooker that does wonders. I made yummy soups with them. I recently learnt that I could make delish congee with these thermal cookers too. Tried congee with it for a first time and I kinda got it.

I grabbed whatever ingredients I had in my fridge and did as best as I could.

They were simple ingredients like dried scallops, peanuts, minced pork meat and century eggs. That's it. Mum told me before that adding a few drops of cooking oil and a tsp of salt into the rice and water pot prevents the porridge from sticking to bottom of pot and this would yield a pot of silky creamy congee. Armed with this simple knowledge I tried my hand at cooking congee. 

Century Egg, Minced Pork, Peanut & Dried Scallop Congee
Serves 2 to 3

Dried scallops (I used 4 pcs of big dried Hokkaido scallops and a handful of small dried scallops since I had them) - I love lots of scallops in my congee

Half a bowl of peanuts (Soaked and remove skins, rinsed, drained)

4 tbsp of minced pork meat, seasoned with 1 tbsp light soy sauce, a dash of pepper, half tsp of cornflour and 1/2 tsp sesame oil

2 century eggs, deshelled and cut into small cubes

1 rice cup of rice

Water (I did not measure exactly the amount of water but I just filled my 5-litre thermal pot to almost half filled)

Garnishings, optional

Fried onions

Spring onions

A dash of pepper

Ginger slices

Light soy sauce, if preferred

1. I soaked the rice and washed dried scallops in water overnight on my stove top, covered. Kept the rest of the ingredients in the fridge. Century egg to deshell and cut into bits at that moment before adding into congee.

2. When ready to cook the congee that morning, bring out deshelled peanuts and add into thermal pot. Add about 1 tsp of cooking oil and 1 tsp of salt into thermal cooker. Stir to mix well the oil and salt with the peanuts, soaked rice and dried scallops. Turn on fire to high and let it come to boil.

3. When the rice mixture comes to a boil, I placed a wooden chopstick at side of pot so that my thermal pot lid can rest on the wooden chopstick, allowing an opening enough for congee to boil and yet not foam and overflow. Turn down heat to medium high for further 20 to 30min, if you have more time on hand.

4. Remove wooden chopstick and cover pot lid well, turn off heat and put thermal pot into thermal pot holder. It will keep cooking while inside the holder and be kept warm.

5. When back home after work at about 6.30pm, bring thermal pot of congee to boil on high heat, stir abit using a ladle for a thick mixture of congee should have been formed right now after almost a day of cooking. Add some boiling water if too dry and sticky.

6. Form small minced pork meat balls with a teaspoon and drop them gently into the boiling congee. Let it cook till done.

7. Meanwhile prepare century egg bits and leave it in the bowls you will be serving the congee in.

8. Do a taste test for the congee, add salt to taste. Scoop congee over century egg bits and garnish. Serve immediately. (If you like to add an egg, crack and leave it in the serving bowl and spoon hot congee over the egg, and it will be cooked soon after, with a runny yolk centre.