Fish porridge with local snapper

Fish porridge , originally uploaded by yongtze.

It's been a while since I put up a new recipe here. My guilt finally hits and here is a fish porridge recipe that is light and yet subtly tasty. Be sure the fish is fresh as it is the freshness that makes the porridge. Also, to cut down the cooking time, I used a stick blender to make the porridge smooth and creamy.

Serves 2-4:

- 1 cup of jasmine rice
- salt
- 1 whole snapper, about 1 kg
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil
- 10 cups of water
- 2 good knob of gingers, cut into thin shreds
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 spring onions
- 2 shallots
- 2 tomatoes, skiinned and cut into cubes

1. First we fillet the snapper. Keep the trimmings, tail, bones, and fish head for the fish stock. Cut the fillets into 2cm x 2cm smaller pieces.

2. Next, we start making the fish stock. Place the water, the trimmings, tails, fish bones, head, onion, half of the ginger, 1 spring onion (roughly sliced) into a stock pot and bring to boil on high heat. Once boiling, turn down to medium heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes, adding salt to taste.

3. Meanwhile, wash the rice thoroughly and drain the water. Add the oil to the rice and  mix them well in a heavy-bottomed stockpot. Set aside, let the grain to soak up the oil.

4. Once the fish stock is ready, pour it through a sieve into the rice and start cooking with high heat until the rice turns soft. Turn down the heat to low-medium to slowly cook for about 30 minutes, stirring often. Once the rice is really soft, use a stick blender to blend the rice for the creamy texture.

5. Add sliced fish, tomatoes and the other half of the gingers into the porridge and simmer for another 10 minutes, keep stirring as the porridge tends to burn at the bottom once blended. Salt to taste. Thinly slice the other spring onion.

6. For confit shallot: slowly cook the shallots with oil over very low heat for about 10 minutes until very crispy. Keep the oil together with the shallot.

7. To serve: Pour the fish porridge into serving bowls. Place some thinly sliced spring onion, confit shallot and its cooking oil on the porridge. For stronger flavour, sprinkle a few drops of sesame oil and some white pepper.