Prawn Congee Recipe

Whenever fall is here, I start to yearn for some old-fashioned, traditional Chinese comfort foods - so with my last feature being one of my favourite Cantonese style '0ld-fire' soups, today I feature yet another famous comfort food, the congee. Congee is available in all kinds of versions in most Asian cultures - today's simple recipe is a flavourful and 'sweet' congee with tiger prawns. The 'sweetness' referred to here is not of the sugary sweet variety but rather, a sixth flavour if you will that is more related to 'freshness'. I like to boil my prawn congee with tiger prawns (shell-on) as the shells really provide a better dimension to the taste. As with most seafood, the length of which the prawns are boiled in the congee is of paramount importance, it just takes a bit of awareness on the cook's part and in no time, you will have a 'feel' for how long you should cook the prawns to achieve the right amount of 'bite' while escaping the sad taste of overcooked, rubbery...

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