Thursday, January 18, 2007

Lean Pork Porridge

I was iced in today, and I didn't even know about this bad weather coming until I was woken up by my daycare teacher's phone call in the morning at 6:30 about our ISD closing.

What a good day to make some porridge, I thought! ;-) So I started cooking, I was going to make "Century Egg Lean Pork Porridge" (Pei Dan Sau Yook Jook in Cantonese) until I found out that my century eggs were all dried up. You would think the name "century egg" would mean that the eggs could be kept forever, at least for a century, and not turning bad, right?!

Without century eggs, my porridge turned out to be just "lean pork porridge".















1 cup white rice
13 cups water
1/4 lb lean pork, cut in strips, seasoned with salt for at least 45 minutes
5 dried scallops, soaked in hot water, shredded
salt
white pepper
sesame oil
pickled vegetables (jar choy in Cantonese)


Soak rice in water in a big pot for an hour.

Bring rice and water to a boil, it will foam up, watch constantly so it doesn't spill over. When it's boiling, add pork and dried scallops. Turn heat down to low and let it simmer. Put the lid on the pot, but leaving a little gap for air to escape so it does not foam up.

Stir occasionally to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of your pot.

Cook for about an hour or until you get the consistency you want. Turn off the heat, add sesame oil and salt to taste, stir well.

Ladle porridge into a bowl, sprinkle some white pepper on it, and put a spoonful of pickled vegetables on top.

2 comments:

Gene said...

whay is/are Century Eggs?

Black and not Pink said...

Century Eggs are preserved eggs. I initially thought the name came from the eggs being preserved/kept for a century, I guess I was wrong.