Fried porridge (炒粥) is like the porridge version of a fried rice where you literally fry porridge with an assortment of ingredients and seasonings. It’s a Malaysian dish that originated from Penang.

While I didn’t get the chance to try fried porridge in my recent trip to Penang, I had heard good feedback from a fellow foodie. As such, I decided I would create my own version of fried porridge. And one special thing about this recipe – I would be using brown rice instead of white. ?

Now that the Singapore government has declared war on diabetes, it is strongly encouraging people to exercise more, consume less sugar and eat more low-GI foods such as whole grains and brown rice. It actually works as people are becoming more well-informed of healthier food choices which is great. I was at the supermarket today and I was surprised to see that brown rice and red rice had gone out of stock while white rice stocks were aplenty. Also, I noticed more people had wholemeal bread in their shopping trolleys. Really impressed by the change. ??

If you’ve been making positive changes to your lifestyle and eating habits, I suggest that you go for health screening every year (or at least once every 2 years) as well. I always get my blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol checked when I go polyclinic twice a year to do my thyroid screening. And I will keep all my past results just so I have a comparison to know if things are stable or going downhill. I’m told that early stages of diabetes may not show any symptoms plus I have family history of diabetes so I’m extremely careful when it comes to looking after myself and my family. So folks, if you haven’t gotten yourself (or your family members) checked out, it’s about time to do so. ?

For this fried porridge recipe, you will have to cook a brown rice porridge beforehand. The porridge should be quite thick with some moisture like the picture above. Don’t add too much water in one go when you’re cooking the porridge. Slowly add a little water each time when the porridge is almost drying up so you don’t end up with an overly watery one. It will take about 40 minutes to cook on low fire over the stovetop.

The finished dish looked like this which I had served in a claypot. ?

Also fried some wanton skin and rice vermicelli (bee hoon) as crispy toppings. They really gave a good textural crunch to the porridge! But take note, the fried bee hoon would go soft very quickly (‘lao hong’) so make sure you fry them last and serve them immediately with the porridge.

Hot, comforting and delicious. The porridge was full of rich, savoury flavour.

You can swap the prawns and cuttlefish with sliced chicken or sliced pork too. However I don’t recommend taking away the dried shrimps because they really gave a nice umami flavour to the dish.

Enjoy!

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