Easy hotel Chinese pumpkin rice recipe (with soup and fish)
Adapted from the recipe of a Michelin star Chinese restaurant (in a 5-star hotel) to make it possible for daily weeknight dinners!
Equipment
- steamer
- Pot
Ingredients
- 80 g Thai jasmine rice This makes about 5 (Chinese) bowls of porridge, so I've indicated it as serving 2 people but of course it depends on how much you eat!
- 2 dried scallops (conpoy)
- 4 cups chicken stock Add more chicken stock/ water if you feel the porridge is too thick
- 350 g pumpkin (kabocha), cubed You can substitute this with store-bought pumpkin puree to make cooking quicker- you can then skip the steaming and mashing in this case.
- 250 g garoupa fillet You can substitute with other types of white fish
- 1 spring onion, chopped Optional Garnish
Fish Marinade
- ½ teaspoon Salt Or to taste
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon light soya sauce Use tamari if on a GF diet
- ½ tablespoon Cornflour
Seasoning
- ½ tablespoon Chinese shaoxing wine
Instructions
- Cook rice as per normal in a rice cooker.
- Whilst rice is cooking, rinse then soak dried scallops in about ½ Cup of hot water to help them soften (covered).
- Marinate the fish fillets with the salt, cornflour sugar and light soy sauce. After marinating for 30 minutes (in the fridge), slice the fish thinly and set aside.
- Steam the pumpkin till soft then mash it up with a fork. (You could also skip the arm workout and blitz it in the blender.) Alternatively, you can microwave the pumpkin (with a bit of water) till it becomes soft - about 5 minutes at 800W. If you're pressed for time or have pumpkin puree to use up, you can substitute the steamed and mashed pumpkin for pumpkin puree.
- Bring the chicken stock to the boil, add the dried scallops and allow to boil for a few minutes, then add the pumpkin to the stock and lower the heat to a simmer. Stir till well-mixed then add the shaoxing wine. Taste and season with salt if necessary. (If you are using unsalted homemade chicken stock, salting is crucial here.)
- Bring back to the boil then add the rice and fish (and other seafood if using), simmer till cooked. (If making pumpkin rice in soup, add the fish and seafood only, not the rice! See below for more instructions.)
- Garnish with spring onions before serving.
For pumpkin poached rice
- Once the fish is cooked cooked, add the rice to warm it through then switch off the heat.
- Garnish with spring onions before serving.
Notes
Optional: when I have king oyster mushrooms, I cut them into long strips and add them to the porridge.