FOOD FRIDAY: RICE PORRIDGE

Writing this post reminds me of a poem I learnt as a child. Here it goes;

         Hot porridge hot,

         Hot porridge cold,

         Hot porridge in the pot,

         Nine days old,

         Some like it hot,

         Some like it cold,

         Some like it in the pot,

         Nine days old!

I'm used to the Nigerian regular yam or plantain porridge, sometimes mixed. However, last weekend we had some August visitors come to visit and we outdid ourselves with dishes prepared for them. The night before their departure, we got to the height of it all. You see, these guests, grateful for our hospitality decided to say a big thank you to my dad. Their thanks only made him want to do more. He decided that it was time to dig out his old recipe learnt by heart from his last visit to China. It was rice porridge!

Rice Porridge

Let's just go ahead and discuss the recipe for this dish.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cups of Rice 
• 2 kg of Meat (preferably chicken) - cut into bite-size pieces
• 4 Carrots - (cut into circles or diagonal chunks).
• Green beans
• 1 small Cabbage
• 1 Canned mushrooms - (drained and rinsed)
• 1 Onions
• Scent leaf (for Nigerians) - (cut into tiny bits)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Crayfish
• Spices (curry, thyme, seasoning cubes)
• Water

RECIPE:

• In one pot, wash and boil the rice with some salt until done.
• You can put the boiled rice in a cooler to prevent it from getting cold.
• In a different pot, boil the meat with your spices, onions and salt.
• As the meat starts to get tender, add your grounded pepper (chili) and crayfish.
• When the meat is done, add the carrots and green beans.
• As the carrots and green beans start to get tender add the scent leaf (for Nigerians).
• Add the cabbage and mushrooms.
• Add water and salt to taste, stirring continuously . (You need lots of water for the recipe).

**The vegetables (carrot, green beans and cabbage should be cut in bite-size chunks).

**I wrote "scent leaf" for Nigerians because I'm not sure it can be found outside the country. But if you have it, please use.

*This recipe as described is enough for 3 - 4 servings.

So now you have your rice and soup ready. Take the amount of rice you need, add the soup to the rice in a bowl plate. Make sure that almost all the rice is immersed in the soup.

Enjoy!!!...