Savoury oat porridge with century egg and pickled eggplant

I love the versatility of oats. You could incorporate it in cookies and muffins to which it adds a new dimension to the texture. Oats also offer many health benefits. It has been said that oats help lower cholesterol re-absorption and therefore promote cardiovascular well-being. Oats are rich source of both soluable and insoluable fibres, the stuff that keeps you regular and help make you feel full longer so that you don't overeat. In fact, oats fall into the category of low GI foods. In lay term this means that oats are more slowly digested, resulting in a gradual rise of blood glucose. This is good news for diabetics and all ye who are battling the waist line.

All those are really fantastic (and they make me sound like a salesperson), but they're not the real reason why I love oats. I love oats because I can whip up congee in 10% the amount of time needed if I was to make congee from rice. So what is this wonderful thing I refer to as congee? It's essentially porridge that is traditionally made from rice and served with anything from shredded chicken to exotic things like meat floss. Congee can be plain, it can be savoury but no, it may not be sweet. On the other hand, many of you are familiar with only the sweet forms of oats. This recipe will challenge your perception and hopefully introduce something delicious and interesting to your palate.


To make rice congee from start would take many hours as the rice needs to be broken down to gruel like consistency, but not with oats. It's so easy to make you'd think I'm lying. To make this savoury oat porridge you will need:

• a cup of rolled oat
• 2 and a half cup of chicken stock
• chopped spring onion/scallion
• deep fried garlic & shallots (get these in the Asian isle of your supermarket)
• century egg (these you'll need to find in an Asian grocer and read the label or you'd risk buying salted duck egg instead... although they're yummy too)
• Japanese pickled eggplant

Boil the oat in stock until it's done, season with salt. Spoon into a bowl. Top with spring onion, garlic and shallots. Halve the century egg and arrange one half on the congee. Arrange pickled eggplant on the congee. Eat.