I believe not everyone has heard of this poor man’s meal. In the olden days, when life was hard, our ancestors used to eat only porridges. They get porridges by cooking rice in a huge pot of water. This way, it yields more volume and feed more people.
This porridge was one of my staple when I was growing up. It is cheap and good. Kua chye/kai choy or Chinese mustard is cheap because they grow easily. The vegetable has some bitter taste and very fibrous. So, one only use Chinese mustard greens in kiam chye boey or make porridges. One needs to boil these fibrous vegetables for a while to make it edible.
The recipe is very simple :
1 head of Chinese mustard – Make sure you soak it well and clean it thoroughly because of the sands and even earth worms stucked to it. (good organic vege, right?). Cut into huge chunks
1 slice of 300gms belly pork, cut into small pieces
1 cup of rice
a small handful of dried shrimps (and I added 3 dried oyster)
a dash of pepper, soya sauce and the most important flavour enhancer – belacan. I used the powder one. Otherwise, just put in a very tiny cube.
Garlic and some ginger. I added some coriander leaves as well.
I just dump everything into the electric rice cooker with four cups of water and let it boil till the meat is tender. Season with some salt if not salty enough. If you like, add some garlic oil. Anyway, the porridge is very flavourful already.
My family sometimes substitute the Chinese mustard greens with spinach. It is good too.
