Thai Rice Porridge

Last night I was up late with Jeremy watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations: Thailand, which combined one of my favorite shows with one of my favorite ethnic cuisines. Of course, afterwards I found it difficult to sleep with dreams of tom yum, duck curry, fish patties and pad see yew floating through my ravenous brain. I was particularly intrigued by a dish featured on the show made up of rice gruel served with an egg and various vegetable toppings. It was a staple of Thai breakfasts, their version of bacon and eggs from what I could gather. Anyway, it looked amazing. And easy too! So I decided to try my hand at it based off of what I saw them making it with on the show, as well as some tips I gathered from surfing the internet. With my different observations combined, I was able to make a pretty amazing rice porridge. I was honestly a bit nervous because the last time I tried to make an asian breakfast item, (asian omelette), I just didn't like the taste of it and ended up throwing it out, but this came out wonderfully. It was completely delicious, the right balance of fishy taste with hot rice goo and partially cooked egg, not to mention the great crunch of the fresh green onions. Perfection achieved at last!!!



Ingredients:



4 and 1/2 Cups Water

1 Cup White Rice

(1) 10.5 Ounce Can Chicken Broth

20 Cooked Shrimp

12 Stalks Green Onions, sliced

4 Eggs

4 Shitake Mushrooms, sliced

1 Teaspoon Olive Oil

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

(4) 1/4 Teaspoons Oyster Sauce

(4) 1/4 Teaspoons Thai Fish Sauce

Sriracha, to taste



*As a side note, the oyster sauce, fish sauce and Sriracha can be found at regular supermarkets in the Asian foods sections.




Heat the rice, water salt and olive oil in a medium/large pot over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to maintain a slow boil. Allow to cook for 30-40 minutes, stirring every so often to keep the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Shake the can of chicken broth to mix up any parts that may have separated, then open the can and add the broth to the pot. Bring the porridge to a boil again, and allow to cook for another 30 minutes, or until the rice has nearly disintegrated and the porridge is nice and thick, like in the photo on the left. Remove the pot from heat. Evenly divide the rice porridge into four regular sized soup bowls. Set them aside.




Now, cook the eggs, sunny side up, on a greased pan using vegetable oil or butter. Cook them until the white part of the egg is sturdy enough for you to place a spatula under it to pick up the egg, but keep the yolk nice and wet and keep a wet layer of egg white on top of the cooked egg white as well. Now quickly scoop the eggs out of the pan, one at a time, and place each egg on top of a porridge bowl.



Drizzle 1/4 teaspoon of the Oyster Sauce and 1/4 teaspoon of the fish sauce over each bowl, making 1 teaspoon of each type of sauce  total for the recipe. Add sriracha to taste as well, (keep in mind it's pretty spicy). Divide the sliced green onions and shitake mushrooms into four equal parts and place them in each bowl, then place 5 cooked shrimp in each bowl as well. Serve hot with extra Sriracha on the side.