Hong Kong style congee

The word congee comes from Tamil word kanji, a prominent food of ancient Tamil people. Congee is rice cooked with water or broth into a thick porridge. It is served for breakfast or lunch with side dishes or with addition of meat, fish or other ingredients. The most common style Hong Kong style congee has chicken or pork with salted egg or century egg added into it. It is also a main attraction in dim sum halls. A good congee should not be too watery or too thick therefore it is important not to add too much water at the beginning. You can always add more water if it is too thick but it is impossible to salvage it if it is too watery. There are many ways to cook the congee and I find the method below is easy and fast so no need to stand in the kitchen too long. 

Ingredients

 1 1/2 cups rice

Wash the rice

Add 1 tbsp oil into the rice and mix it well then add enough water to cover the rice.

Cover and leave it overnight in the fridge.

Soaking the rice will make it easier to break up and the oil makes it smooth.

1 chicken breast

1 hard boiled salted egg

1 century egg

1 chicken stock cube

6 dried scallops

The first thing to do is cook the chicken

Cut the chicken breast into smaller pieces

Put into boiling water and let it cook

Drain the oily water from the soaked rice and rinse

Put the rice together with the water used to cook the chicken into the slow cooker.

Add the chicken stock cube and washed scallops

Top up with water to water level mark 5 and set the cooker to cook porridge

It will take about 1 hour for the congee to cook

Shred the cooked chicken into thin strips

Add the chicken strips into the congee

Cut the salted and century eggs into small pieces

When the congee is cooked, add the eggs

Stir until it is thoroughly mixed

Season with salt, pepper and 1 tsp sesame oil

Serve with chopped spring onions and thinly sliced young ginger