family... congee

I'm so thankful for today =)
So we had dinner together at a Vietnamese restaurant somewhere on Sheppard-Yonge... just the 3 of us. And skyped our parents =D
I was feeling moody and -_- earlier. I didn't feel exactly like moving out of Loo to Toronto cos it's not really going back home? And my parents aren't there =( My parents are absolutely the cutest parents ever!!! =D
here's an excerpt from A and K's convo on the topic of red packet money for Chinese New Year:
A: yea so it's 20bucks/so funny cuz mum told me to give myself too/and i'm like taking it out of my own account and giving myself?? /lol
K: HAHAHAHA that was the BEST joke coming fr u very nice [panda]
Can't wait till the next time we get together for dinner, just the 5 of us, talking about our day over the dinner table =) and I still haven't exactly fulfilled my promise of cooking for Papa & Mummy! Oh, and making those pineapple tarts (Singapore, CNY-style) together that all of us just wolf down in seconds once they're out of the oven.
On the topic of food, I promise to share the lau sa bao recipe next time! I left my laptop in loo, cos I hope to get more work done in toronto... my midterms are actually mostly after reading week. I remember I kind of just mixed the recipe for custard bao and lau sa bao from a hk website.
But for now, I wanted to share the congee recipe my mum taught me. There might be easier ways out there, but so far, I don't remember having to deal with burnt congees =P

• Cut up pork into chunks (please don't ask me for the specific dimensions).
• Brine pork (lots and lots of salt... rub into pork. if the pork is saturated, it'll be hard to rub the salt crystals into the meat). Leave for a few hours (or best, leave overnight.)
• Soak rice with a pinch of salt and drop of oil. Add water and leave for 30 mins. (1.5 cup of rice = about enough for 1 person's lunch and dinner?)
• I usually add dried scallops too =) My mum got those for us from HK
• Pour about 1 cup of water to medium/large pot. Bring to boil.
• Pour water from soaked rice away. Dump soaked rice into pot with boiling water.
• Add an egg to keep rice from sticking to the bottom. And it supposedly gives more calcium?
• Cook on low-medium heat. Rice will start to soak up water.
• After about 10-15 mins, add more water (a little above the surface of rice). And add the dried scallops too if you have that.
• Once it starts boiling, turn off heat. Leave for a few hours (or overnight).

• Blanch pork for 7 mins.
• Meanwhile, add more water to the congee concentrate (rice would be soft and mushy by now). Mix and cook at low-medium heat.
• Add blanched pork to congee.
• Continue cooking at low heat, adding more water. Depending on how thick you want the congee to be... about double the original congee concentrate volume?
• Leave on stove for about 30-45 mins, stirring about every 10-15 mins. Add more water if congee starts to get too thick.
• Turn off heat. Congee can be "cooked" (kind of like slow-cooker) while it's still warm so the flavour from the meat can be further soaked up by the rice.
• When re-heating, make sure to add water and mix. The re-heating step is usually when the congee gets burnt. We usually just microwave, so much easier =P

Hmm, I'm not sure whether this is actually a longer way of making congee. (comments welcomed! =))

I really miss my mum's congee though. I don't know how she used to take care of all 3 of us when we got sick at the same time. You really need to be able to take care of yourself before you can take care of others, something I've been really learning... and since it's still the flu season, take care of yourselves, and dress warm (for those of us still experiencing the long, cold winter)