If you have leftover rice, you can use it to make dishes like fried rice (such as Chinese Sausage Fried Rice or Egg Fried Rice) or a hearty bowl of congee. This congee recipe tastes fishy with peeled shrimp and umami with century eggs. Follow this recipe to learn the most effective techniques for making the best congee texture, alternatives, and ingredient details.
What Is Shrimp Congee With Leftover Rice And Century Eggs?
Congee is a staple Chinese comfort food made with boiled rice, water, and toppings. It is a Chinese rice porridge similar to other variations around the world, such as kayu in Japan, juk in Korea, and lugaw in the Philippines, to name a few. It comes in several types since it is seasoned with an array of toppings, from meats to vegetables and sauces.
In this congee recipe, I prepared the congee with shrimp, century eggs, and vegetable leaves. I seasoned it with shrimp oil, salt, black pepper powder, light soy sauce, and sesame oil. The main step in the recipe is cooking the leftover rice for 30 minutes until the rice grains are puffed up.
Afterward, the rest of the meat and vegetable ingredients are added and seasoned to taste. Have this hearty dish at any time of the day. If you want to try a different variety, you can also make Century Egg and Pork Congee (皮蛋瘦肉粥) and 15-minute Cantonese Congee.
What To Know About Century Eggs (皮蛋)
The special ingredient is the umami century egg (皮蛋), which is also known as Pi Dan and thousand-year eggs. This is not your ordinary hard-boiled egg since it is a preserved egg of a duck or chicken. Making a century egg usually involves preserving it for a month with salt, lime, clay, and rice, among other things.
When the century eggs are opened, they have a translucent dark brown outer layer and a dark green to gray center. A century egg tastes completely different from a regular egg since it is pungent, bitter, and umami. Moreover, the outer layer texture is jelly-like and bouncy, while the center is cheesy and slightly gooey.
How To Customize This Recipe
Congee is one of those dishes where you can put almost any topping to personalize it according to your taste. Aside from shrimp and century eggs, you can still customize this recipe with your other favorite meat and vegetable ingredients. I share below a list of alternatives and optional ingredients to consider.
- Rice: Use any type of leftover white rice, either short or long grain rice such as Jasmine rice. I do not recommend brown rice since it will not make the water thick and starchy like white rice. Aside from leftover rice, you can use newly cooked rice or uncooked rice. If using uncooked rice grains, you will have to cook them normally and add more water than usual. You can cut down the cooking time for uncooked rice by soaking it overnight and breaking it into smaller pieces. If you prefer a bit of stickiness, sushi rice is an excellent option.
- Shrimp: The shrimp is used in two ways: to make shrimp oil and as a flavoring ingredient. I used shrimp with the head on since the head is used to make shrimp oil with ginger, while the body is for the congee topping. Instead of using shrimp with heads, you can simply opt for frozen pre-peeled headless shrimp and cook it with the rice.
- Century egg: Century egg is available in Asian or Chinese grocery stores. You do not have to cook these, just peel the eggs and add them to the congee. It is difficult to replace this with other types of eggs since its taste is distinct. If you cannot find century eggs, you can replace them with salted duck egg, raw egg yolk, or soft boiled egg, but the taste won’t be pungent, bitter, and umami like century eggs.
- Seasonings: I seasoned the congee with salt, black pepper powder, light soy sauce, and sesame oil.
- Salt: Salt brings out the flavors of the congee. Use sea salt, pink salt, or kosher salt and adjust to taste.
- Black pepper powder: Add a bit of heat and a woody taste with black pepper powder or crushed peppercorns. Swap this with white pepper powder if you prefer an earthy, musty taste.
- Light soy sauce: This deepens the flavor and adds some salty and umami taste. You can swap this with dark soy sauce and adjust it to taste. Other types of soy sauce to consider are tamari, liquid aminos, coconut aminos, or gluten-free soy sauce.
- Sesame oil: Sesame oil is great for an earthy and nutty Asian taste. If you like a neutral-tasting oil, go for peanut, soybean, or vegetable oil.
- Vegetables: Make it fibrous and super healthy with green leafy vegetables like chopped cabbage, lettuce, or napa cabbage. Add a crunchy and slightly sweet taste with celery and a citrusy and spicy taste with cilantro. Make it oniony with chopped scallions, spring onions, or onion chives.
- Optional ingredients: If you like something meaty, go for meat alternatives, such as Spam, Chinese cured pork belly, Chinese sausage, or chicken floss. You can also add dried shiitake mushrooms for a smoky and ‘meaty’ For more ideas on toppings, check out my guide on 35 Must-Try Congee Toppings.
The Correct Way To Make Congee
Are you a newbie in making congee? If yes, I suggest reading this section first to learn more about the do’s and don’ts when it comes to cooking congee. Achieve the best results with these tips:
- Simmer on medium-low heat: Do not cook the rice on high heat as this may cause the congee to clump and harden at the bottom fast. Moreover, cooking on high heat will cause the congee to spill and overflow. Only simmer the rice on medium-low heat and let it thicken for about 30 minutes. If the congee starts to overflow, open the lid slightly to avoid this.
- Avoid overloading: Do not add too many ingredients as you want to have more soup than the toppings. Allow the ingredients to cook evenly with ample space to move around as you stir.
How To Store And Reheat Congee
Congee is best stored in an airtight container to maintain quality and prevent absorbing odor from other foods in the fridge. You can keep it in the fridge for 3 to 5 days. Freezing congee is possible, but I do not recommend it since the rice texture may change and deteriorate.
When you are ready to eat chilled congee, simply reheat it on medium heat in a pot. Chilled congee tends to thicken and lose water, so it helps to add a bit of water to thin it out as you reheat it. Keep stirring the congee as it is reheated in the pot to prevent the bottom from hardening or burning.
Prepare These Kitchenware And Ingredients
The cooking tools needed are your basic kitchenware, such as a pot with a lid and scissors. The ideal cooking pot for congee is a clay pot because it heats gradually and holds heat better than metal pots. Moreover, it distributes heat evenly for perfectly cooked congee with intensified flavors.
The kitchen scissors make it easier to cut out the shell and head of the shrimp, but you can also use your knife for this. Lastly, prepare your wooden spatula for stirring and a strainer for removing the heads from the water. Here are the ingredients to prepare:
- A bowl of cooked leftover rice
- 8 to 10 pieces of whole shrimp with head
- 10g of ginger slices
- 1 tbsp cooking oil (for shrimp oil), I prefer to use peanut oil.
- Boiled water (to fill the pot)
- 1 cup of century eggs
- Salt (to taste)
- 1 tsp of black pepper powder
- 1 tsp of light soy sauce
- 1 tsp of sesame oil
- 30g of vegetable leaves
5 Steps To Make Shrimp Congee With Leftover Rice
Get more guidance by watching my short tutorial video on Instagram or TikTok. Basically, as soon as the ingredients are prepared, you only need to cook the rice in boiling water for about 30 minutes. The rest of the ingredients are added afterward and seasoned to taste.
- Prepare the shrimp. Cut off the shrimp heads, open the back, and remove the shrimp shell and vein. Set aside the heads and body.
- Make the shrimp oil. In a pot, heat oil and fry shrimp heads and sliced ginger. Press the heads to release the juices for extra flavor. Then, add boiling water and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove the shrimp heads using a strainer. Mix in a bowl of leftover rice, cover, and cook for 30 minutes until the rice grains bloom and the soup thickens.
- Add the rest of the shrimp, chopped century eggs, salt, black pepper powder, light soy sauce, and sesame oil.
- Add chopped vegetable leaves before serving for color and fragrance.
Serve while hot and fresh!
How to Make Shrimp Congee with Leftover Rice
Ingredients
- A bowl of cooked leftover rice
- 8 to 10 pieces of whole shrimp with head
- 10 g of ginger slices
- 1 tbsp cooking oil for shrimp oil, I prefer to use peanut oil.
- Boiled water to fill the pot
- 1 cup of century eggs
- Salt to taste
- 1 tsp of black pepper powder
- 1 tsp of light soy sauce
- 1 tsp of sesame oil
- 30 g of vegetable leaves
Instructions
- Prepare the shrimp. Cut off the shrimp heads, open the back, and remove the shrimp shell and vein. Set aside the heads and body.
- Make the shrimp oil. In a pot, heat oil and fry shrimp heads and sliced ginger. Press the heads to release the juices for extra flavor. Then, add boiling water and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove the shrimp heads using a strainer. Mix in a bowl of leftover rice, cover, and cook for 30 minutes until the rice grains bloom and the soup thickens.
- Add the rest of the shrimp, chopped century eggs, salt, black pepper powder, light soy sauce, and sesame oil.
- Add chopped vegetable leaves before serving for color and fragrance.
