Multi-colored Seafood Congee

Multi-colored Seafood Congee
Home Cooking



I felt like making something nourishing, nutritious and warming for lunch today. Last week, my mum bought me these cans of shark fin and crab meat broth. My parents found it in an Asian grocery store and mum told me they used it to make congee, thought it was quite good and bought some extra cans for me to try.

Shark fin and crab meat broth

Over the week, I managed to forget all about it until I looked in my pantry today. I also had some mixed beans so I thought I'd throw that in too and boost the nutrition level.

Congee takes quite a while to make if you try to cook the rice from scratch. Alternatives are to use pre-cooked rice (easiest) or do what I did and soak the rice for a few hours. I soaked the rice and beans together, draining and changing the water a few times.

Depending on what beans you use, they might take a long time to soften up to. If you've got lots of large dried beans, you should keep them separate to the rice and cook them earlier because they'll require more cooking time than the rest of the congee.

Can of Chinese chicken broth

Of course not everyone will have shark fin and crab meat broth lying around. You can use Chinese chicken broth with or without shark fin and crab meat added (shark fin normally comes in dried panels that you boil and crab meat can come in cans). I prefer Chinese chicken broth over Western chicken stock for Asian dishes because it's clear and less herby. There's a more simple, chicken flavor.

The name for this congee comes from the fact that there are green lentils, red beans and yellow corn. Very pretty!

Multi-colored Seafood Congee
Makes 2 large bowls

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup of uncooked rice (or 3/4 cup of cooked rice), soaked in water for 3-4hrs
• 1/3 cup mixed beans (I used a soup packet mix that had a lot of stuff...), soaked in water, or pre-cooked
• 1 x 400ml can of shark fin and crab meat soup + 1 cup of Chinese chicken broth (or all Chinese chicken broth)
• 1/3 cup of canned corn kernels
• 1 egg, beaten
• shallots or coriander to garnish (optional)

Procedure:

1. Soak the rice and beans for 3-4 hrs in water. Drain and replace the water periodically. If you are using large beans that will take longer to cook, you might want to pre-cook them.2. In a medium-sized saucepan, bring the shark fin and crab meat soup to the boil (if using all chicken broth, bring 400ml of that to the boil).

Piece of shark fin

3. Reduce the heat to low. Add the rice and beans.4. Cook on low with the lid off for 20-30 min, stirring constantly to prevent burning. As the liquid gets absorbed by the rice and beans, replenish it with chicken broth.
5. When the rice is cooked (taste test to check), add the corn and cook for 2min.
6. Stir in the beaten egg slowly so that is becomes cloudy in the congee mix.
7. Serve warm with garnish.

Multi-colored seafood congee

This is excellent Winter comfort food. It's the kind of food I dream about when I'm sick and hazy and can't stomach anything else. Softened rice and beans are easy to digest and very nutritious. If you like, you can add cooked, shredded chicken (and use pure chicken broth instead of shark fin and crab meat soup).

Nice, hearty spoonful

The shark fin pieces are quite prominent and the seafood flavors are subtle but very tasty. Congee is typically a 'throw together' dish where you work with whatever left overs you have at home. Flaked white fish pieces would also work well in the seafood version.