Prawn Congee with Century Eggs

It's basically exams period, and that can only mean 1 thing - more cooking, or more baking. But obviously since baking is usually higher in calories, I cook. Plus, I tend to finish my baking food within like an hour. I rarely, or hardly, ever cook Chinese food, because the measurements are usually pretty hard to define them. So please take note that the measurements may vary from one's palate to another.

I used to have this instant porridge packets, which basically takes me literally 3 minutes to cook it and it only cost me 0.75euros per packet. It's a cheap and easy dinner, and I basically throw in whatever ingredients I feel like eating that day. But since it is exams period (yes yes, I blame it on exams), I have more time to make it from scratch. Plus, the asian market doesn't sell my porridge anymore so I haven't been eating them in months.

Plus, my boyfie somehow wanted to eat congee. I wanted to make the more traditionally chicken or pork congee, but boyfie wanted seafood/prawns.

Ingredients:

1 Cup of rice

8 Cups of water

2-3 Tablespoon of Chinese cooking wine

A handful of dried shrimps

A handful of dried mushrooms (shitake)

Prawns

Shredded carrots (to your liking)

Century eggs

Crab meat (diced)

Vegetable stock

Spring onions for garnish

Directions:

Soak dried shrimps and dried mushrooms in hot water. After it has been softened, throw all the ingredients in, excluding the century egg and crab meat. I cooked it under "white rice" setting first, but then I changed to stew. The rice would slowly break up, so don't worry about it being all grainy in the beginning. Stew it longer if you like your congee thicker and add water if you like it more watery. I stewed mine for a good 1.5hours. Then throw in the prawns to cook it. Add the crab meat, century eggs and spring onions at the end when serving. 

I was reading recipes online and that they say you should marinate the prawns first, but obviously I was too lazy to do that. But go ahead if you like to. Variations also say that congee would taste better if you soak the rice in water or sesame oil + salt for a good hour. I didn't had the time to do that either. And I used vegetable stock because I'm a person who really likes a more flavourful taste rather than a plain white congee. But you can do without it, if you like. 

From the picture, you can't exactly see the crabmeat or prawns because I kind of finished it all in the first serving and usually the second servings do not have much ingredients left. I love the colour of the crabmeat, carrots and spring onions, giving it that colour to a mundane white congee. Ahh, all food only looks good. But pictures can sometimes be deceiving. 

I made a good 6 bowls/portions with these ingredients.