This is the congee I’ve been eating this week.

I treated myself to a 50mm f1.8 lens for my Nikon D3000 this week and this is the first food photo I’ve taken with it. This lens has no auto focus when screwed to my camera so I’m hoping that this lens will force me to get better with the camera’s manual settings.

I usually just put rice straight into water to boil for congee, but I read that soaking the rice prior to boiling  makes for creamier congee. It’s true!

This week I’ve been eating congee with seasoned pork mince and ginger for breakfast. Garnished with fresh spring onion slices from the garden, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Pork and Ginger Congee

(Makes 3-4 servings)

Ingredients
1 cup long grain rice (a rice cup is 180ml)
Water
200gm lean pork mince
2 slices of ginger for each serve (cut into matchsticks)
1 stem of spring onion (chopped)
Splash of soy sauce
Drizzle of sesame seed oil

Preparation

1. Soak the rice for a hour or two in a pot.
2. Refresh the water with 2 inches of water over the rice level.
3. Bring the water up to boil and then simmer for 1-2 hours.
4. Add more water if required to form a porridge consistency.
5. At this stage I take the pot off heat to cool down and store, covered in the refrigerator.
6. In a lidded container, mix the pork mince with a tablespoon of soy sauce and a teaspoon of sesame oil. Seal and refrigerate until required.
7. At breakfast time each day, spoon out 1 portion of the porridge into a small pot, add 2 tablespoons of the seasoned mince mixture, and cut up 2 slices if ginger into matchsticks.  A little water may be required to bring back to porridge consistency. Stir through the porridge and simmer for about 5 minutes until the pork is thoroughly cooked. Uncooked pork is pink. Cooked pork loses it’s pretty pink and turns into a pale brown.
8. Pour into a bowl and top with chopped spring onion, soy sauce and a drizzle of sesame oil.

Enjoy this hot breakfast on a cold late autumn or winter’s morning.