Easy Chinese Seafood congee with shrimp/ prawn

Ingredients

• 8.8 oz Fresh Shrimp or prawns, shelled and deveined (250g)
• 1 Tablespoon sesame oil (Pour the marinade into the pot of congee too when adding the seafood.)
• 1/2 Tablespoon shao xing wine (As above)
• 15 Cups Water
• 1 1/2 Cups White rice
• 10-15 dried scallops (conpoy), rinsed and soaked in hot water for at least 30 minutes
• 2 Honey dates, rinsed then soaked in hot water for at least 30 minutes
• 2 thin slices ginger (Wash but don't stress about peeling!)
• 1- 1 1/2 Tablespoons Shaoxing wine
• 2 Tablespoons Fish sauce
• 1/2-3/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper, or to taste
• Thinly julienned ginger, chopped spring onions, fried garlic, fried shallots, a bit of light soy sauce etc
• Drizzle of sesame oil over each bowl

Instructions

1. 1

   --- A. If your prawns have shells- make prawn stock and you'll get a beautiful orange rice porridge ---

2. 2

   Shell your prawns and put the meat and shells in 2 separate containers.

3. 3

   Add the shao xing wine and sesame oil to the prawn meat and mix well, then cover & refrigerate. (Take the prawns (and any other seafood you may be using) out 10 minutes before you want to add it to the congee base so that it will be at room temperature before cooking, but not too early as seafood spoils easily.)

4. 4

   Heat oil in the pot over medium-high heat and, when the oil is hot and shimmering, add the prawn shells & ginger. Be careful of oil splatter if your shells are wet.

5. 5

   Turn the heat down to medium and stir-fry till the prawn shells are cooked and almost crisp. Keep pressing the prawn heads as lots of goodness is stored in there (but be careful that they don't fly out of the pot!)- this will take about 10 minutes. Add the 15 Cups of water/ stock to the pot and bring it to a boil.

6. 6

   Reduce the fire to medium low and simmer for 15-30 minutes, after which you strain out the shells (and keep the liquid.)

7. 7

   Optional extra step: if you really want to get all the umami out of the shrimp shells, you can blend the shells and liquid before straining out the shells.

8. 8

   Continue to Step A2 below.

9. 9

   --- A2. If your prawns do NOT have shells- start from here. ---

10. 10

    Add the 15 Cups of water/ chicken stock/ prawn stock that you made above to a pot and bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, add the rice and bring back to the boil.

11. 11

    Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low then let the mixture simmer, making sure to stir every now and then to prevent the rice at the bottom of the pot from sticking and burning.

12. 12

    --- C. Add the seafood ---

13. 13

    Once the congee is cooked to your desired texture- probably about 45 minutes (remember to keep stirring occasionally)- add the shrimp (and other seafood if using.) (Note: if you're adding the seafood at the 45 minute mark, take it out from the fridge at the 30-35 minute mark so that it's not super cold when it goes into the hot porridge- this helps to keep it tender!)

14. 14

    Stir the congee till the shrimp/ seafood is cooked through then switch off the fire. Note that a properly cooked prawn or shrimp should have a "C" shape, in which the head and tail do not tough- if it has tightened into an "O" shape (i.e. the head and tail are touching), it's overcooked. (See the photo in the recipe post to see what I mean by "C" shape)

15. 15

    --- D. Serving ---

16. 16

    Ladle out into individual bowls and garnish each with (optional) sliced ginger matchsticks, soy sauce, sesame oil, coriander, spring onions etc.