One of our favorite cold weather meals in our house has quickly become Porridge. Oddly enough, my first taste of porridge was at my friend Bryan’s house over the summer when he had a swim party. Porridge and hot weather aren’t the greatest combination, but as soon as I had it I was totally hooked.
I texted Bryan recently to find out exactly how to make porridge becasue the weather turned cold, basically you cook one part rice to 8 parts water. He said to cook it slow and low but I cheat, boil the hell out of it and then stick the immersion blender in the whole thing to make it super creamy. It take about 25 minutes of boiling to get to the right consistency.
Once it’s done, it’s an amazing base for all sorts of toppings. You can top it with anything and it’s delicious.
Tonight I topped my porridge with three different things.
1. My all time favorite porridge topping; pork wool. Pork wool is shredded, dehydrated pork, think something like beef jerky but with a slight sweetness. When mixed into the porridge it takes on the moisture and reconstitutes. SO GOOD. The little flowers are pretty much for decoration, they’re rice crackers. Completely flavorless and adorable!
2. Shrimp and Enoki mushrooms sauteed in olive oil, fresh garlic and Chinese 5 spice. Get a pan and put 1/8 cup of olive oil, 5 cloves of minced garlic and the mushrooms until the mushrooms are soft. Add the shrimp (I buy precooked frozen shrimp, defrost it and take off the tails. TAKE OFF THE TAILS!) and put into two heaping tablespoons of Chinese 5 spice. You might be saying to yourself, “I’m putting too much spice into this” but you’re not, this is going on a bland base. Once everything’s warmed up add some soy sauce to taste.
3. Fried Tofu with Peanut Sauce. Cup up a brick of extra firm tofu into the most equal sizes you can, and fry in a thin layer of olive oil. Because of the moisture in tofu, lots of spattering will occur so be careful. Once each side is browned, set aside on a paper towel to absorb some of the moisture and add a little salt. I used some bottled peanut sauce to put on top and then garnished with sweetened seaweed. (Don’t eat the tofu right away, the middle is like lava!)
Some other toppings I’ve tried and really liked:
Pickled cucumber
Fried gluten
Any sushi rice seasoning
Sugar and cinnamon
Have you tried porridge yet? What toppings did you try?
[...] them. Using spices to help make the plate unique. As a perfect example, my Julie makes this amazing Chinese Porridge, and although I can’t have ALL of the various toppings for it, (the idea of “fried [...]