Prawn Congee Recipe

Whenever fall is here, I start to yearn for some old-fashioned, traditional Chinese comfort foods - so with my last feature being one of my favourite Cantonese style '0ld-fire' soups, today I feature yet another famous comfort food, the congee. Congee is available in all kinds of versions in most Asian cultures - today's simple recipe is a flavourful and 'sweet' congee with tiger prawns. The 'sweetness' referred to here is not of the sugary sweet variety but rather, a sixth flavour if you will that is more related to 'freshness'. I like to boil my prawn congee with tiger prawns (shell-on) as the shells really provide a better dimension to the taste. As with most seafood, the length of which the prawns are boiled in the congee is of paramount importance, it just takes a bit of awareness on the cook's part and in no time, you will have a 'feel' for how long you should cook the prawns to achieve the right amount of 'bite' while escaping the sad taste of overcooked, rubbery prawns! You may add more variety of seafood into the congee as well and you will then have seafood congee! It is really simple and with a little bit of imagination, you can maximise the ingredients you have left in your fridge and create some new recipes that you can tuck away in your apron. I like to marinate my prawns mostly in Chinese rice wine, a bit of ginger and mirin before putting them into the congee to mask the fishiness while adding some fragrance to the mix.