Refreshing Rice Porridge/Congee with Sweet Pototoes

Usually when any member of my family is under the weather, rice porridge or congee is the best choice. Besides being refreshing, it's also excellent for those who have weak digestive tract from chronic or acute illness and also for healing nourishment.

Cooking rice porridge or congee is easy and simple. An amount of grains with 5 to 6 times more water is all that is needed for plain rice congee and preferably, a pinch of sea salt is added. Plain rice congee can be of white or brown rice grains. For added flavour or health benefits and healing purposes, a combination of grains, beans, vegetables, meat or medicinal herbs is commonly practiced by my family since our grandparents' era. In fact most of my uncles and aunts as well as my parents are quite well equipped with Chinese medicinal herbs knowledge as both my grandparents were Chinese sinseh. Too bad, my knowledge on this topic is quite limited and I regretted that I didn't really make it a point to learn it from them. Fortunately, I am still able to cook simple yet nutritious and healthy meal for my own family, hehehe... Not too bad, isn't it????

Ingredients :

- 1 cup of rice grains - I used brown rice (thoroughly washed)

- 1 medium sized orange sweet potato (peeled and cut)

- 6 cups of water (adjust the water depending on individual's preferences)

Method :

1) Put washed rice and water into a pot and bring to a boil.

2) Lower the heat and simmer until the rice is semi-cooked.

3) Add in sweet potatoes and continue to cook till porridge consistency and the potatoes are soft.

4) If you need to add water, remember to add hot water.

5) Serve hot for breakfast or lunch.

I prefer my porridge to be super silky smooth (you need to simmer it longer) but hubby likes his rice porridge just as the above picture and my girls like theirs to be very watery. So, each time whenever I cook porridge, the consistency of the porridge also varies depending on the type of porridge and the 'demand', hehehe...

We usually eat this with some side dishes or condiments if we are having it for lunch. As this was for breakfast, we had it with Homemade Salted Duck Egg <--- (click here for a step-by-step recipe).