Prawn Congee Recipe
By: Tastes of Home
Published: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 - 6:38pm

Ingredients




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 or fish stock)
10 tiger prawns (shell-on, heads-on is even better if you feel so inclined)
2 smalls inches worth of fresh ginger (cut into  slices, leave ½ inch unchopped)
2 stalks green onions, sliced
Marinade:
6 tablespoons of Chinese rice wine
1 tablespoon Mirin
Dash of sesame oil
1 teaspoon salt
At the table:
Soy sauce (to taste)
Sesame oil (optional)
White pepper (to taste)

Preparation

1 First, wash the rice accordingly and soak for at least 30 minutes - this step is to ensure a smoother consistency for the congee. 2 Meanwhile, marinate the prawns. 3 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. 4 Once you have achieved the consistency you desire, drop the marinated prawns in and watch closely. 5 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. 6 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!

About


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.