Yen Can Cook ~ Century Egg & Minced Pork Porridge
I just shared a quick method to cook porridge/congee with PH in one of her post. The trick is freeze the rice grains! Just rinse the rice as usual then put it in a freezer-safe container or zip-lock bag, keep in freezer for at least 8 hours. The freezing process will alter the structure of the rice grain and easily breaks into smaller pieces. This hack can reduce the cooking time and you’ll get a nice velvety congee in just 15-20 minutes.
Today I’m going to cook Century Egg & Minced Pork Porridge, a classic Cantonese congee that we can have in any Dim Sum restaurants (it’s Sam’s favourite order too). The porridge featuring century eggs & minced pork and prepare this dish at home is easy and fast, by using the rice freezing method! (^_-)v
Century eggs 皮蛋 or Pi Dan in Mandarin, are duck/chicken eggs preserved in a mixture of clay, ash, tea leaves, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls for several weeks or months (not century which is contrary to its name LOL). This process turns the yolk to a creamy texture with a distinctive strong flavor while the whites of the egg turns dark, jelly-like.
Ingredients (Serve: 3-4)
1 cup rice, rinsed and frozen overnight
50g minced pork
2 century eggs, mashed/diced/sliced
1600ml water
Salt to taste
Chopped spring onion for garnishing (optional)
Marinade
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon cooking wine
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
A dash of pepper
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Step 1: Combines ingredients of marinade in a bowl and marinate the minced pork for at least 30 minutes in fridge.
Step 2: In a deep pot, add in water and frozen rice, bring to a boil then allow it to simmer on low heat. Stir occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking and burning to the bottom of the pot. Cook for 15-20 minutes until your preferred consistency.
Step 3: Add in marinated minced pork (Step 1) and century egg. Cook for another 5 to 8 minutes and stir frequently.
Step 4: Add salt to taste.
Step 5: Served with sprinkles of chopped spring onion or drizzles of sesame oil + soy sauce + dashes of pepper if desired.
HAPPY COOKING! #dudukrumah #stayhealthy
What a brilliant idea to freeze the rice for 8 hours to get the finest texture! My nanny always to use the big sieve to mash my porridge to finer texture when I was a small kid. I love to eat congee until today.
TM, what a pampered kid you were….. I know the blend method for finer porridge but the sieve method definitely my first time heard of it!
I love century eggs and most times I just eat the eggs neat by themselves LOL! Thanks for sharing the hack and I will try it one of these days. My partner prefers the rice to still maintain its shape and not cooked till it breaks down. He said the “mushy ” one is Cantonese porridge whereas his preference is Hokkien porridge. Haiz… LOL!
PH, I seldom eat century egg neat by itself. Porridge with grain still maintain its shape is what we called Teochew porridge which we have it with various of side dishes.
Yes, I’ve heard of this hack before but have never tried it out myself. Now I know for sure it works! 😉 I do like my rice grains to be broken (Cantonese-style) but don’t like it too mushy (like blended) in one consistency (Hong Kong-style?)…does that make sense? ;D I like century and salted eggs in my porridge (I usually just chop up the salted eggs and add that to the porridge).
Kris, this hack definitely works and it can apply to beans such as red beans and green beans, when you want to make Tong Sui.
I think those too mushy need further process of blending or sieving like what TM commented above?
All this while I always have my reservations for century egg…it is too “ancient” for me.
Tekkaus, understand, because the century egg indeed has a distinctive smell that not acceptable by everyone.
Love this on a cold rainy morning.
KY, great!
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