It is not easy to make a delicious bowl of porridge . The above bowl of fish porridge that you see is resulted from my many years of experience in perfecting it. I remembered I once cooked a bowl of porridge for a friend who was sick during my college days and guess what, it was so bad that he threw it away (my hubby later told me because that was his roommate). Seriously I was not a cook at that time, and that bowl of porridge was made with care (or in Mandarin, "Ai Sin"). How would I know it was that inedible and a sick person can be picky too! *roll eyes*
Ingredient: (yield one serving for adult)
1 Tilapia fish fillet, cut into pieces
3 large dried scallops, soaked in hot water til soften, reserved the water
Some chopped carrots
1 handful of rice, washed
Salt to taste
About 2.5 ~ 3 cups of water (or depending on how big your handful of rice is, hehe)
Method:
1. Add the rice into a saucepan and add enough water to make porridge. Add in the dried scallops and the soaking water. Let it boil.
2. When boiled, add in the fish fillet and carrots (you can add green peas or chopped cabbage too) and turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 1 to 1.5 hours (stirring occasionally, this will break the grains) or until the porridge reached the consistency that you like. I like my rice grains broken, soft and thick.
Extra Touch:
I like to drizzle a little sesame oil, ground some fresh white pepper and top with crispy fried shallots before serving.
I normally made this for Edda without the extra touch. This fish porridge is sweet because of the dried scallops and you will feel the goodness with each spoonful until you scrape the bowl clean. It's that good!
hehehe...I tried to make fish porridge but I never got it right :( I will try yours instead. I'm craving for fish porridge for over a year.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI cook fish porridge quite often for my family. I use batang (not sure the english name) fish and homemade ikan bilis stock. If I happen to have it, I will make fish stock out of fish bones (from the whole batang fish I buy, where I asked the auntie to debone for me) and use it to make porridge. More economical than dried scallops lah :) I will cook the rice with the stock and when the porridge almost done, I will dump in the fish slices. I season the porridge with some salt, sugar, pepper and a tiny dash of fish-sauce. Garnish with fresh-fried shallot, garlic and ginger slivers. Sometimes I cook the porridge with some shredded pumpkin for some additional veg and there's no discernible taste so the kids just eat up the lot, LOL!
Litter Corner of Mine is a fascinating blog....In fact, one of my favorites in the cuisine department. Your efforts are visible and I must say the page looks edible!
ReplyDeleteGr8 work:
http://diningroom16.blogspot.com
http://howtohavebettersex.blogspot.com
I love porridge! Only problem is my other half won't touch it :-(
ReplyDeleteThe fish porridge looks really nice. usually I just make plain rice porridge and eat it with those black salty beans!
hahaha...i remember when i cooked rice porridge for my hubby, and he threw it ayaw T_T
ReplyDeleteThis is indeed a good blog..Highly recommended for people who love to cook and those who love food.
ReplyDeletehttp://diningroom16.blogspot.com
Cooking Ninja,
ReplyDeleteYou definitely need to make this comfort food and satisfy your craving for over a year, girl!
If you don't have dried scallops, you can use chicken stock to cook the porridge. And if you can buy fresh fish in your market, you can slice the fish thinly and lay it in a bowl and then pour the hot porridge (that has been cooked for 1.5- 2 hours)on it to cook the fish. Sprinkle some thinly sliced ginger, chopped green onion, white pepper and sesame oil and there you have it. :)
Hi Serena,
Definitely more economical than dried scallops, thanks for sharing your way of cooking porridge here. But then hor, dried scallops made the porridge so sweet leh. :P
Hi Starwin,
Thanks for your kind words!
Hi WokandSpoon,
Guess your other half just not sure used to the porridge, plain one also nice, like the teochew porridge.
I Sha,
LOL! Men!
Yummy porridge!
ReplyDeletehey,
ReplyDeleteyour hubby's ex-room mate very jahat le~ We love to eat porridge too when we are not feeling well. It' just soothing and comforting to us.
Wooo hooo...I think I can try making this too...me a porridge person. But I don't really like the tilapia (muddy taste leh!)...what other fish can I use?
ReplyDeleteThanks V! :)
ReplyDeleteMandy, me too. :)
Tigerfish,
You can substitute it with cod, orange roughy or mahi-mahi (fish flesh needs to be solid).
I'm wondering how come the tilapia fish I bought here have no muddy taste like the ones in M'sia? Believe me, if it has muddy taste, my hubby won't eat it. We don't buy catfish too because of the smell.
I was trying for find a Korean cold noodle recipe and I accidentally came to this Web site! I love it!
ReplyDeleteI am a stay-at-home mum with a 14-month baby girl. Your food looks good and yummy. I have been pulling out my hairsrecently due to my picky daughter who doesn't want to try new food! :-( And I am not a good cook. I cook porridge (in chicken stock) with veggie for her everyday. Do you mind sharing your baby food recipe with me?
Hi Huey,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to my blog and glad you like it. :)
Actually I will have a cold noodle dish coming out that's similar to the Korean one, but it's the Chinese version. :)
My 9 months old basically eat everything I feed her. Not much to share really because this is the porridge I cooked for her, sometimes use fish, chicken or ground pork as variation. Or she eats mac & cheese that I cooked for her sister. Or our rice plus a bit soup and whatever tiny pieces of tofu/meat that I think she can eat. If not, she just have the baby cereal or apple sauce. She loves the pasta with tomato sauce too. What about pancake with ham?