Easy hotel chinese pumpkin rice recipe (with fish and soup) (2024)

Published: Oct 8, 2022 · Modified: Jun 29, 2023 by Zen · This post may contain affiliate links.

This easy Chinese Pumpkin Porridge recipe is the perfect Asian comfort food for fall! It's also a great way to use up leftover pumpkin puree! Adapted from a Michelin-star Chinese restaurant's recipe to make it suitable for weekday dinners.

⭐ Why This Recipe is a Star

1. This easy Chinese Pumpkin Porridge is delicious: congee is a childhood comfort dish for most Asians and this recipe is full of cozy fall flavors. (
2. It's very flexible: I've tested it with fish, with canned abalone, and without any seafood at all. All 3 times, it tasted scrumptious! You can also make it with boiled pumpkin, steamed pumpkin or leftover pumpkin puree! It's also a great way to use up extra rice!
3. It's really simple: if you can cook rice in a rice cooker, and boil a pot of water, you can make this Chinese pumpkin dish! (Unlike typical congee, the rice is cooked separately from the soup, then added later. This helps to preserve the texture of the individual grains of rice, making it a more delicate dish. It's also cooked much more quickly than a traditional bowl of congee!)

Note: Other comforting fall recipes include thiswarming ginger chicken soup(made with coconut water!), thisleftover roast chicken porridgeand thisSingapore Chicken Porridge.

🍲 Ingredients

You will need a few simple ingredients, the main ones of which are:

• pumpkin: The original Shang-Ri La Chinese pumpkin recipe calls for steaming and mashing-blending Japanese pumpkins (kabocha) but I've tested regular pumpkins which work well too. (Note that Japanese kabocha pumpkins will give the porridge a more beautiful orange hue compared to regular pumpkins.) In addition, I've simplified the recipe by boiling the pumpkins instead of steaming and blitzing- less hassle, saves on clean up and still tastes as good!
• long-grain white rice: you can substitute with short grain Japonica rice but that is more starchy, and will break down more in the pumpkin chicken broth. This will make the Pumpkin Porridge taste less refined, though still yummy!
• dried scallops: these need to be soaked in hot water for 30 minutes before cooking. If not, even if you boil them for 15 minutes on high heat, they'll still be tough in the middle. They're like natural seafood stock cubes so a little pricey. If you're on a budget, check out 1 of these dried scallop alternatives. If you're lucky enough to have too many, here are some Asian conpoy recipes to help you use them up!
• chicken stock: Homemade is best. Alternatively, use 1 chicken stock cube. I have not tested the recipe with seafood or vegtable stock, but will do so soon.
• light soy sauce: use high quality light soy and don't substitute with dark soy sauce, sweet soy sauce or thick soy sauce!
• Chinese cooking wine: use Shaoxing or 1 of its substitutes

For the full list of ingredients, please scroll down to the recipe card.

Note: My testers and I don't feel that coriander goes well with this pumpkin porridge so don't recommend it. If you want a garnish, try spring onions or 1 of these Chinese rice porridge toppings and side dishes.

Why Add Pumpkin?

This Chinese Pumpkin Recipe is adapted from aShangri- La Hotel Shang Palacerecipe to make it suitable for weekday dinners. (In case you're not familiar with Shangri-La, it's an Asian chain of luxury hotels.The 1 in Singapore received a Michelin-star at its Chinese restaurant!)

The pumpkin gives the rice a beautiful golden hue. It also makes it look especially appetising, as well as bulks up the poached rice, so it's healthier!

Usually people get hungry quite soon after eating rice porridge. However, the thickness of this pumpkin poached rice means that you stay full for quite some time.

This Chinese pumpkin recipe is also great for Chinese New Year as gold is considered a lucky colour. It symbolises getting lots of gold (money!) in the coming year. In fact, some people feel it's a must to havepumpkin on their CNY table, such as this easy Chinese pumpkin soup recipe.

Note: If you're here for aChinese New Year recipe, you may like these6 Asian whole chicken recipe(for prosperity), thisfish-shaped koi jelly(for auspiciousness), this soy sauce chicken recipe (for wholesomeness) or theseChinese New Year walnut biscuits (for fertility.)

🥘 Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Cook your white rice as per normal (i.e. in the rice cooker, stove or microwave. If you're using a rice cooker, it'll take about 40 minutes to cook. The pumpkin only requires 10 minutes or so of boiling to be cooked FYI!)
2. At the same time, rinse then soak your dried scallops in hot water. Don't wash off all the white powder you see on the scallops- these are usually the "umami" bits!
3. If using fish- optional as I've tested without it and the porridge is still very tasty- marinate them now in the sugar, soy sauce, salt and cornflour.
4. 15-20 minutes before you want to serve your meal, bring a pot of chicken stock to the boil
5. Add the pumpkin cubes and dried scallops.

6. When the pumpkins are cooked, they should be tender enough to pierce with a fork.

7. Lower the heat to a simmer. If using, add the fish now and poach till cooked. If not using fish, add the same quantity of soy sauce and sugar to the porridge (as per the marinade quantities.)

8. Stir in the shaoxing wine, then add your cooked white rice to the pot.

9. Salt to taste and serve.

Changes to the Original Hotel Recipe

See Also

Thai-Inspired Chicken Meatball Soup Recipe7 Bone Broth Sipping RecipesYou'll Love Our Foolproof Recipe for Spaghetti Carbonara30 Chicken Soup Recipes That Are Pure Comfort in a Bowl

The original Shangri-La Hotel kabocha rice recipe called for chicken stock powder.

I prefer to use natural ingredients in my cooking, so I substituted the chicken bouillon powder with sugar and light soya sauce. (Most vintage Singaporean cookbooks use MSG but my Uncle, who was Perankan and a fantastic home cook, always used sugar whenever recipes called for MSG.)

I also pared down the steps and ingredients to the basics to make it more accessible for weekday dinner cooking.

For example, the original calls for crabmeat, but crabs aren't really an everyday ingredient. I tested this Japanese pumpkin porridge without it and the chicken stock, seasoning and dried scallops make it sufficiently tasty!

You can add the crabs on special occasions as well as other types of seafood, such as fresh scallops, prawns and abalone.

Note: Alternatively, click here for a fresh and dried scallop congee and here for a canned abalone chicken broth congee.

👩🏻‍🍳 Expert Tips

Tip #1: If adding other types of seafood, add them to the broth with the fish (i.e. in the 2nd last stage of cooking. Put them in the pot in order of the amount of time they take to cook, starting with the longest to the shortest. This helps keep the seafood tender and not rubbery.)

Tip #2: If using fresh pumpkin, it can be steamed, boiled or microwaved for this porridge. I recommend boiling for those who want to save time, and steaming for those want a slightly more melt-in-the-mouth pumpkin texture. (The difference is quite small, to be honest.)

Tip #3: If you want a smooth porridge with no chunks of pumpkin, blend the pumpkin in the chicken broth before adding the grains of rice!

💭 Recipe FAQs

🥢 Other Asian Pumpkin Recipes

Enjoyed this hotel-inspired Chinese Pumpkin Porridge recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below & if you REALLY liked this Asian comfort food dish, a comment would make my week! Thank you and have a great day!

If you try this easy Chinese pumpkin rice recipe, let me know what you think in the comments or tag me @greedygirlgourmet on Instagram!

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