cantonese congee - part 3

I have been really into making congee lately. I discovered the simple techniques which involve so little time that I category them as passive cooking - a kind of like IRS's passive investment income which I have not much involvement while my sous chef Chrono does all the heavy lifting. My congee typically takes 10 hours of extremely low heat simmering, thanks to Chrono's unparalleled patience.

This is another big pot of congee I made, with all seafood ingredients. Scouting the photos on the web I can discern which might be a tasty congee that were made right. The majority are not, especially the one with the pale white soup. All too often the sin is embellishment. Also you should not heap the fancy undercooked seafood on top of the congee. When prepared properly, the seafood or meat should almost be unrecognizable. Shrimp, especially the farmed one, generally does not go well with congee as it adds unpleasant odor to a dish that is all about subtle and mild flavors. A bowl of elegant congee is the parallel of French consommé or a Japanese seafood soup prepared with real dashi.

This pot was made with shiitake mushroom, razor clams, medium size neck clams, Dungeness crab meat and tomalley; the razor clams were added before another circa 8 hours of ultra low heat simmering

harvesting the meat from the Dungeness crab

the crab tomalley was added to the congee

the result is the most delectable bowls of wholesome seafood congee made with love for good food

What I like with the congee are a lot of thinly sliced ginger, scallions, a lot of finely ground white pepper, and a drizzle of quality sesame oil. While writing this post, I just remember that I forgot to add some giant sea scallops that I intended. Not too late.

I put in 6 of these jumbo sea scallops

a few hours later a bowl of seemingly ordinary congee

the scallops easily broke up into flakes

most of the goodness ingredients sink to the bottom