lily's Cakes And Breads: Fish Congee/Yee Sang Chook

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Fish Congee/Yee Sang Chook

What do I eat for breakfast? This question arised in many a conversion with westerners. Congee, of course, nothing beats a bowl of hot congee/chook on a cold winter's morning, besides warming the body, it takes the place of a beverage. While we think of rice as belonging at the dinner table, in many parts of China and Asia, this nutritious staple is consumed three times daily, including for breakfast.

Nonetheless, there's more similarity between an asian and western breakfast than it would first appear. Many asians begin their day with a warm bowl of congee/chook, a watery rice gruel that bears marked resemblance to porridge. Ah, porridge, for the longest ever, we in Malaysia, have associated the english term for congee/chook as porridge. When my brother was hospitalized, we told our aussie sister-in-law to make him porridge and you guessed right - she made oatmeal porridge and then did we know that porridge and congee/chook are not the same. To her, congee/chook is 'rice soup'.

Ingredients:

For the congee/chook
1 cup jasmine rice
1/4 cup glutinous rice
1 tsp salt
1 small piece rock sugar
1 tbsp cooking oil.

Accompaniments:

1 lb fish fillet(any fish of your choice)
Fried Tung Fun
1 knob of ginger - peeled and juliened
Fried garlic
Spring onion/coriander - chopped
Soya sauce
Sesame oil
Pepper

Marinate for the fish fillet:

Shaoxing wine
Soya sauce
Sesame oil
White pepper
Ginger Juice

Method:

Put all the ingredients for the congee/chook in the pressure cooker and add enough water to come to half pot. Close the lid and bring up the pressure to 15 lbs. Pressurized for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat. Release pressure before opening lid.

Turn heat on again and using a wire whisk, stir and whisk vigorously until congee/chook has thickened. Add cold water as you whisked to the consistency you like.