♥ Congee does not have to be boring!

Congee does not necessarily have to be your usual boring congee options such as fish congee, lean meat & century egg congee, small boat congee/Ting Zai Congee (艇仔粥), lean meat & peanut congee, and all the other more commonplace congee options. Today i cooked congee with the following ingredients: canned pacific clams, chicken fillet chunks, and shredded chinese cabbage. My honey really loved this congee very much; in fact, he finished this entire pot of congee by himself yesterday (I'm not really a congee lover, so i mainly cook congee because i know it's my dear's favourite and i want him to love me more! Hehe, you know of the saying, "the way to a man's heart is through his tummy", dont you?! So anyways, major evil plan in progress! As for myself, i made myself some olive fried rice.)

I cooked the rice in my rice cooker 1st, using its "porridge" function. This helps me to save time and gas bill $$ (if u cook the rice from scratch in pot, it takes double the time) ^_^

For the clams, i used Fortune brand's canned Pacific Clams. These are perfect for vege stir-fry dishes too. Hassle-free (dont have to clean like crazy to make sure there's no more sand left on the shell etc.) and there's this wonderful sweetness about these clams that will most definitely add much flavour to the dish!

Ingredients to prepare~ chicken fillet (cut into small chunks, marinated with some salt, sugar, and sesame oil), pieces of ginger, canned pacific clams (cut up into smaller bits), and chinese cabbage (sliced into thin strips/shredded).

After the porridge is cooked in the rice cooker, remove from rice cooker container and transfer onto big pot. Add in water and drizzle some peanut oil (adding the oil ensures that the rice grains do not stick to the bottom of the pot and prevents the rice from getting burnt!). Bring to a boil. When it boils, add in the ginger pieces.

Remember to stir every now and then to prevent the rice from setting to the bottom of the pot.

Boil on high heat for approx. 10 minutes, then add in the clam bits and continue to boil on high heat for about another 10 minutes. Reduce to medium heat and boil for another 20-30 minutes, until clam bits are soft through, or until sweetness/flavour from clams have infused into the congee. ALWAYS REMEMBER to add in more water along the way if necessary & to give the congee occassional stirs.

Add in the shredded chinese cabbage and give the ingredients & congee a good stir. ALWAYS REMEMBER to add in more water along the way if necessary & to give the congee occassional stirs.

Reduce to low heat. Simmer till chinese cabbage is soft through. ALWAYS REMEMBER to add in more water along the way if necessary & to give the congee occassional stirs.

After chinese cabbage is cooked and soft, increase to high heat and add in chicken chunks. Give it a good stir! Continue to boil on high heat for about 5-8 minutes to allow the chicken to cook.

Then reduce to low heat and simmer for another 20-30 minutes, or until congee's consistency is like this (in the pic) ~ i.e. not too watery but not overly thick. Before serving, taste, and if need be, add in more salt. Enjoy with some deepfried chinese dough cruller or simply enjoy it on its own :)

(p.s. Apologies for the low resolution/not-so-clear pics; that's the best my iphone 3 could do for me. It's weird how sometimes the pics turn out superb and how sometimes it's all just so blurry and lacking in colour! The pics simply dont award enough justice to the actual dish, which is such a pity!)

(p.p.s. Apologies too for the rather messy stovetop! This is what often happens when u share a house with other housemates. You can't guarantee they'll always try their utmost best to keep the place clean >_< )