Congee with Ginger Shrimp

Joe and I ate some spicy chicken wings all day yesterday and paid for it all night last night. SO, I decided to make Congee for breakfast, especially since the kids LOVE soup and rice anyway. Congee is Asian-style rice porridge. My way of doing it is pretty quick and easy. Traditionally, it's garnished with chopped scallions, Chinese sausage, soy sauce, and crisped garlic or crisped shallots. I had none of those things this morning. I had shrimp in the freezer and a little cilantro. So I made ginger shrimp to go with it. Quite delicious.

Ginger Shrimp
shrimp
chopped ginger
chopped garlic
soy sauce
corn starch
a little water
s+p

Congee
rice
broth (I used chicken, remember when I boiled the chicken breast the other day for flautas? I
            strained/saved it for future use)
soy sauce
sesame oil
chopped ginger
chopped garlic

 

Chop ginger and garlic

 

Rough chop shrimp, pour about a capful of soy sauce on it (yes, while on the cutting board, do you like to wash extra dishes?)

 

Add a little oil to a large sauce pan (you'll see the genius in a minute) and add the ginger and garlic. Saute for about 1 minute on med.

 

Mix corn starch and water together in a bowl to make a slurry. This is a Chinese food thing used to thicken sauces. You don't need much for it to work.

 

Add shrimp, s+p, and saute. When almost done, add some slurry.

 

This is what it looks like when finished.

 

Using same pot, add a little more oil and more ginger and garlic. That leftover slurry will help thicken the congee quickly. This is really a 10 minute recipe type of thing.

 

Add broth and bring to a boil. You want plenty of gingery goodness in this.

 

Add cooked, hot rice (remember, we're making it go quickly) and let boil for about 5 minutes (you can add a little water, if it thicken too quickly). Add a capful of soy sauce towards the end and a drop of sesame oil.

 

Congee in the bowl, shrimp on top, a little extra soy sauce and cilantro leaf for garnish. Very satisfying, stomach-stabilizing breakfast.