scallop porridge

i was feeling kinda under the weather that day so i decided that maybe i should have some comfort food; in the form of porridge. who can deny that porridge is not the world's best food to have when you're sick? hot piping porridge is also the best remedy for getting through the coldest of winters.

not to be that decadent but i had some scallops in the fridge that i was thinking of making pasta with so i scrapped the pasta idea and made porridge instead. this recipe is definitely suitable for anything really, other than the fact that you have to vary the kind of broth you use for the rice to cook in.
you can cook porridge in a normal pot but i have the best rice cooker ever which can cook just about anything. all i had to do was to put in the broth together with the rice and select the 'congee' option and in 45 minutes i'd have piping hot porridge ready to serve.

250g raw scallops
1 packet fish stock (if your local supermarket doesn't have ready made fish stock, you could substitute it by using 500ml of boiling water and pop in a fish cube)
2 cups of rice grains
1 teaspoon sesame oil
a splash of shaoxing rice wine
soy sauce for seasoning (up to your own discretion)
salt and pepper for seasoning the scallops

you start by cooking the rice in the fish stock until the rice turns to a porridgey texture. in the mean time while the rice cooks, melt a small bit of butter or olive oil and sear the scallops till brown. lightly season with salt and pepper but do take note to go easy on the salt as scallops have natural salt content in them.



once the scallops have been cooked, tip them into the porridge and season the porridge with soy sauce to make it as tasty as you'd want it to be.

garnish with coriander.

not too difficult eh?