Easy Chinese Seafood congee with shrimp/ prawn
This Easy Chinese Seafood congee with shrimps or prawns is a delicious seafood rice porridge that is easy to cook but still silky and rich. Chicken stock/ broth optional!
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 216kcal
Equipment
- Big pot Has to be big enough that the 15 cups of water and rice can boil without overflowing! If you don't have such a large pot, just add less water/ stock initially, and add the rest of the water when the porridge has cooked down a bit.
- Blender and strainer Optional- only if you are blitzing the prawn shells
Ingredients
Marinade for prawns
- 8.8 oz Fresh Shrimp or prawns, shelled and deveined (250g) Keep the shells! (See Step A below)- if your prawns come without shells, go directly to Step B. You can also add other seafood such as squid, clams and fish but note that they take different amounts of time to cook, so add them at different periods of time. (Add the ones that take the longest to cook first.)
- 1 Tablespoon sesame oil Pour the marinade into the pot of congee too when adding the seafood.
- ½ Tablespoon shao xing wine As above
For the congee
- 15 Cups Water You can substitute with chicken or seafood stock. Note that you will need a HUGE pot. (If using 1 of the "quick cook" congee methods mentioned in the post above, such as freezing and blending the rice, you may not need so much water as the rice will break down more quickly.)
- 1½ Cups White rice I used Calrose but you can use long-grain jasmine or sushi rice. Some people feel that using short-grain rice helps shorten the cooking time as the starch is released more quickly.
- 10-15 dried scallops (conpoy), rinsed and soaked in hot water for at least 30 minutes Add the soaking water to the pot of congee. To save money, use broken up conpoy which is cheaper- the scallops will be broken up during the cooking process anyway. For substitutes, see notes.
- 2 Honey dates, rinsed then soaked in hot water for at least 30 minutes Add the soaking water to the pot of congee. These have large seeds in the middle which you may want to remove after cooking, before serving. Substitute: ⅛ teaspoon white sugar or to taste
- 2 thin slices ginger Wash but don't stress about peeling!
- 1- 1½ Tablespoons Shaoxing wine
- 2 Tablespoons Fish sauce Used to create extra umami (especially if not cooking with stock), but if you don't have it just use salt
Seasonings- add after cooking the prawns in the congee
- ½-¾ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ⅛ teaspoon ground white pepper, or to taste Do not substitute with black pepper, they're not the same thing. White pepper is super strong so less is more here!
Optional garnishing
- 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
A. If your prawns have shells- make prawn stock and you'll get a beautiful orange rice porridge
- Shell your prawns and put the meat and shells in 2 separate containers.
- 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.)
- 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.
- 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.
- Reduce the fire to medium low and simmer for 15-30 minutes, after which you strain out the shells (and keep the liquid.)
- 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.
- Continue to Step A2 below.
A2. If your prawns do NOT have shells- start from here.
- 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.
- 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.
C. Add the seafood
- 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!)
- 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)
D. Serving
- Ladle out into individual bowls and garnish each with (optional) sliced ginger matchsticks, soy sauce, sesame oil, coriander, spring onions etc.
Notes
Click here for what you can use instead of dried scallops.
You can reduce the time needed to cook silky congee by:
- soaking the uncooked rice for 1 hour-overnight
- using (uncooked) rice that has been frozen
- blending the uncooked grains
- adding cooked white rice to boiling water then using a handheld blender to break down the rice grains. You will only need to cook the congee for about 10-20 minutes (just about long enough to cook the seafood) but note that the cooking time will be so short, your dried scallops and honey dates may not soften enough to eat!
Nutrition
Calories: 216kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 19g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 109mg | Sodium: 1264mg | Potassium: 316mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 3IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 81mg | Iron: 1mg