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)

Carrot & Tomato Porridge 红萝卜,番茄,干贝干耗粥

I have been cooking quite abit of congee recently. We just wanted something easy to cook and easy on the tummies. No fuss. And congee was the easiest of all.

I made some carrot & tomato porridge this time. I still remember how I always fight for some of the carrot tomato porridge my mum used to cook for my little brother then. It was really yummy. And healthy!

Like always I used the simplest ingredients I could get out of my fridge. I never like stuffing my fridge with lots of ingredients because I do not cook daily and by keeping too much meat and vegetables in the fridge, I am not getting the freshest deal when I finally get to cook them. I tend to plan my dishes to cook for weekend and then go marketing on the weekend morning after our breakfast.

So here I present you my babyish like porridge.

Carrot & Tomato Porridge
Serves 2 to 3

2 tomatoes, washed and remove the top stalk portion

1 medium sized carrot, deskinned and shredded

2 dried oysters, washed and rinsed

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 porridge

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

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 and I used about 2 rice cup of water since I am adding 2 tomatoes and they produce water when cooked and softened)

To taste, optional

A dash of pepper

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. 

2. When ready to cook the porridge that morning, bring out deshelled peanuts, rinsed dried oysters, shredded carrot and tomatoes 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 rice and ingredients. 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 porridge 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 porridge to boil on high heat, mash softened tomatoes with the back of the ladles and stir to mix it into the congee. If too sticky, add some boiling water.

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

7. Do a taste test for the porridge, add salt to taste. Serve immediately.

Korean Dried Scallop Porridge

Sometimes after a few days of good food or greasy sinful food, I crave for simple plain porridge to get by the remaining week. I will either cook plain white porridge and settle the meal with some preserved olive vege and some pork floss or cook some congee.

As I was flipping through one of my recipe book lazy week, I saw this one recipe by Jin Yin Ji's Korean Kitchen Book. It is a simple dried scallop porridge which I cooked, and we like it.  I thought it was good and easy enough for toddlers too.

Haven been craving for this and will be cooking it again soon!

Dried Scallop Porridge
Recipe by Jin Yin Ji's Korean Kitchen Book

1 cup rice
1 1/2 anchovy / chicken stock
3 pcs dried scallop
150g lean pork
2 pcs of garlic
3 shallots
1 tbso oil


Seasonings
a dash of pepper
sone soy sauce
some salt

1. Rinse and soak dried scallops in clear water till they become soft.  Tear the scallops into shreds. Drain well and set aside. Keep the water used to soak the dried scallops.  (I rinsed the scallops and soaked them overnight in the fridge, covered.)

I used 3 big Hokkaido dried scallops and several small ones because I want more bites of them in my porridge 😁

2. Peel and finely chop shallots and garlic separately.
3. Chop the lean pork up to minced meat.  (I used mixed meat. Saves the effort of mincing them on my own.)
4. Rinse rice grains and soak them in clear water for about 20 minutes.
5. Heat oil in a wok and fry shallots and garlic till fragrant.

6. Add in shredded scallops and minced pork, and fry till cooked.
7. Add in stock and the water used to soak dried scallops. Simmer over low hear for about 40 minutes.
8. Add in rice grains and continue to simmer till porridge is formed.

9. Add in seasonings to taste before serving.

I am submitting this post to Cook-Your-Books #20 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours