Congee with Fish Paste

Ah the versatile fish paste. I personally like it best pan fried as it's much tastier but if you want a fast meal, scooping it into boiling water is the fastest way to cook it.

You can use existing chicken stock and cooked rice to make this congee in 10 mins.

However in the recipe below, I'll be using a chicken shell and uncooked rice which will result in longer cooking time.

It's really fast to put together but you'll need a bit of time to let it simmer. 

Congee with Fish Paste

Ingredient

• 2 to 3.5L of water
• 1.5 rice cooker cup of frozen rice
• 1 chicken shell
• 3 slices of ginger
• 1 tub of fish paste
• 1 green onion
• 2 tsp salt

Directions

1. Add 2 L of water to the pot and bring to a boil.
2. Add the Chicken shell and ginger and let it simmer for 15 mins. 
3. Add the frozen rice.
4. Bring the pot back up to a boil and then simmer for 20 mins.
5. Now that the base of the congee is cooked, you can add in the fish paste. Easy way is to use a spoon and scoop out little balls and dip your spoon into the congee so it releases from the spoon. If you want it prettier, you can try to cut it but you will probably want to freeze it before hand so you can cut it. It's pretty soft and malleable so hard to cut if you don't freeze it.
6. Let it cook until all the fish paste floats to the top to signifies that it's cooked.
7. Add the salt and stir.
8. Chop the green onions to be used as topping for your congee after you scooped it into bowls for serving.

Enjoy :)

Fish and Corn Congee

This congee is one of the ones where you add the extra ingredients in last.
This is a very simple yet yummy tasting congee. Using Fish as the protein allows for a very lean and healthy meal.

I use frozen basa fish fillet because it's easy to use and I usually have a package or 2 on hand in my freezer. I defrost the fish in the fridge overnight. As always, because there's seafood, I add ginger to help get rid of the "fishy" smell/taste.

For Corn, you can use either frozen or canned corn. If you have corn on the cob you'll have to remove the kernel from the corn to use it. Since I live in Canada where I can only get fresh corn in the summer, I typically use frozen or canned corn for this congee.

This recipe will make 1 big pot of congee enough to feed a family of 5.

Fish and Corn Congee

Makes 1 big pot Prep Time: Overnight Cook Time: 30 Mins

Ingredients

• 3 to 3.5 L of water
• 1.5 rice cooker cups of frozen rice
• 2 packages of defrosted basa fillets
• 2 cups of frozen corn or 2 cans of corn kernel, drained
• 3 slices of ginger
• 1.5 tsp of salt
• 2 green onion chopped (optional)

Directions

1. Put the water and ginger into the pot on the stove top and turn the heat to max.
2. Once the water is boiling, add in the rice and stir until it's boiling again so nothing sticks to the bottom.
3. Once it's boiling, turn the heat town to simmer and cover. Let it simmer for 20 mins.
4. While the pot is simmering away, wash the basa fillets and then cut each piece into 4 like I show in the picture to the right. You don't want to cut it too small as it'll break apart some more when it's cooked.
5. Strain the fish in the fridge to get rid of the water.
6. Chop up the green onion on a clean surface. (if you're adding the green onion)
7. At the 20 minute mark, turn up the heat again to high.
8. Once it's at a roiling boil, add the salt and the corn and stir.
9. Once it's boiling again, add the fish and stir. Let it come to a boil and cook it for 5 minutes.

The congee is not ready to eat. You can top it off with the green onion or stir it in at this point.
I generally like my green onion raw so I just add it on top of my boil of congee

Enjoy!

Fish Paste and Egg "pancakes"

I love eating fish balls, squid balls, beef balls etc, but I was never very fond of eating fish paste by just cooking it as is.
Even though fish balls is made from the paste, when the manufacturing companies make the balls, they add more things into it to make it springy rather then soft.
So if we have fish paste lying around, I would cook it with something rather then eat it on it's own.

This "pancake" is a nice way to change the texture of the paste and adds flavour to it.

Ingredients
Half a tub of Fish Paste
3 Eggs
1/2 tsp to 1 tsp of white pepper powder (to taste)
1/8 tsp of salt



Directions
1. Use a fork and stir the fish paste to mix it up and break it loose
2. Scramble the eggs, add the white pepper and salt to it
3. Add the egg very very little at a time to the fish paste in it's container. Mix well after every addition.
You'll probably want to add about half an egg every time you add and mix or else it'll be very hard to mix.
If you find that it's not mixing very well because you poured too much egg, do a folding motion to help incorporate some of the egg and keep folding until you're at a point that you can stir to mix well.

4. Once all the Egg is incorporated, heat up your pan to medium heat.
I used my cast iron griddle and I was able to cook everything at once.
5. Oil the pan and pour the mixture like you're cooking pancakes onto the pan.
They should be able 3 bite sizes.
6. Cook them like you would pancakes, wait for 1 side to set (you can tell by the edge), then flip it over
7. They will expand when you cook, brown both sides nicely and you're done!
:)

Tip: I like using the container to mix as I find it easier, if you start with a full container and need to use a bowl, find one that is similar size to the container. If you use a big bowl it's actually harder to mix.