Leemei’s Fish Congee

I made this for dinner last night to the sheer delight of my younger daughter who absolutely loves congee. She has been a fan of congee since young, and likes all of its available variation. For her a bowl of plain, smooth and perfect textured congee, topped with either chicken floss or Japanese seaweed is the ultimate meal. She can have it three times a week, and don’t seem to get tired of it (bought from the shops previously). Generally she prefers the simple and “bland” type of food, just like me. Maybe that’s the reason, why I had a more pleasant pregnancy with her, minimal morning sickeness and vomiting. Not sure whether there is any correlation though.

On the other hand, my elder daughter hates congee. To her it’s a when you are sick type of food, definitely not fit for everyday meals. She prefers the more flavourful type of meal, has a soft spot for deep fried stuff and is always game to try different types of food. She once told me that she aspires to be a food critique. Seriously I believe that she will grow up thinking that life is meaningless without good food and will be a firm believer that a person should live to eat, and not the other way around.

Back to my fish congee – it’s a simple with minimal ingredients, yet yummy recipe, by Leemei of My Cooking Hut. This is my third time cooking this one-pot meal. No changes to her recipe were made in my two earlier attempts, but this time I added chinese rice wine when I marinated the fish (thanks for the tip, Leemei). It was good, brought the taste to a new level, the congee has a subtle and nice fragrant after taste. My family prefers this improved version.

 

Fish Congee

* 200g (about 1.5 cups) of rice, washed
* 2 litres of water (spare a bit more to adjust the consistency)
* 1cm thinly sliced ginger
* 1 big fillet of cod/haddock (or any white fish), cut into medium cubes
* pinch of salt
* some chopped spring onions, to garnish
* some fried onions/shallots and gingers, to garnish (optional)

 

Marinate for fish
* 1-2 tbsp oysters sauce
* 1 tbsp soya sauce
* 1 tbsp rice wine
* 1 tbsp seasame oil
* 0.5 tsp white pepper

 

Method

1) In a big pot, put in the rice and water. Bring it to a boil.

2) When it comes to a boiling point, give it a good stir. Put in some salt and the sliced ginger. Then, put the lid on. Turn the heat to low.

3) Check and stir from time to time. It takes probably 20 – 30 minutes for the grains to start breaking. If you use Jasmine rice, it will be quicker. Long grain rice like basmati takes slightly longer.

4) Let it cook for about 1.5 – 2 hours. Remember to stir and check the consistency. If it becomes too thick, add some water. I usually tend not not make it too runny. The consistency that I always look for is like something like the consistency of pancake batter.

5) Once it has been cooked under low heat for about 2 hours with desired consistency achieved, stir in the cod/haddock fillet that has been cut into cubes.

6) Put the lid back on to let the fish cooked for about 15 minutes.

7) Serve congee in bowls, sprinkles with some spring onions, fried gingers and onions. You can adjust the seasoning by adding soya sauce if you wish (I always like this). Drizzle some sesame oil and a few dash of white pepper (to give a real kick to this dish!)