Sticky rice with ‘hybrid’ tapioca porridge

It seems that when the porridge goes anywhere, the person who eats it immediately “hears” the nutrients penetrate there. After drinking a bowl, the person was sweating profusely but was extremely happy.
Fortunately, having the opportunity to eat “hybrid” cassava soup again in the hometown of Go Cong, Tien Giang province, what a joy.

That day, I was treated to potato porridge cooked with snakehead fish. The difference is that, the cook also “ballasted” (seasoned) to add one or two tablespoons of delicious fish sauce to the porridge pot to add flavor, before sprinkled with onions and pepper. At first, the pot of porridge gives off an attractive aroma quite similar to rice flour cake soup. But when you taste it, you can clearly feel the bold and light sweetness from cod fish fat and the characteristic sweet aroma of fresh cassava roots. And strangely! It seems that, when swallowing porridge, people immediately feel that the nutrients are “running” there. After drinking a bowl, the person was sweating profusely, so refreshing. Nutritious, easy to digest, hybrid porridge with tapioca soup. In particular, this porridge is not served with vegetables. In particular, this porridge does not need accompanying vegetables. If it feels bland (pale), add a little fish sauce with dangerous chili peppers, it will be very harmonious. When the weather is hot, people are sluggish, so they can easily lose their appetite. However, whenever someone invites me to drink cassava porridge, I am extremely interested. Because it is strange and easy to digest. This dish can be eaten as a filling or as a soup with cold rice in the main meal. More luxurious, add a pot of braised goby with pepper or braised fish sauce with lots of fat and dotted with small dried shrimp, half the size of a chopstick. How much rice! When you eat it, you will feel the sweet, dark and light taste from copper fish fat. The “hybrid” soup of the southwestern countryside, can be cooked with a few copper fish (small, perch, choke) or a bunch of shrimp and shrimp to add sweetness. There are places, even more “playful”, cooked with bamboo chicken or young chicken. So the more I think about it, the more I love the noodle kitchen! Because in order to have the above-mentioned quality soup, the most important requirement is that there must be fresh tapioca, the form that has just been spit up is the best. Old potatoes, will reduce the characteristic sweetness. In particular, the “young” cassava variety planted in 3 months for harvest is more useful than the “old” variety, it takes 6 months to grow the tubers to be large enough. Because the tubers of the 3-month-old potato are always sweet and fragrant. Of course, cassava can be processed into many other delicious dishes, such as: grinding it, rolling it into a curry ball or pouring it into a little sweetened condensed milk pressed into a mold like a printed cake to be grilled over charcoal fire or wrapped. little cakes, steamed silkworm cakes… Shredded cassava ingredients for curry. However, still not as deeply impressed as the “hybrid” soup just described. Because this dish, not only strange and nutritious, but also makes the writer nostalgic about the interesting porridge and soup dishes he has tasted. It’s like, a thin line between really good porridge and soup. And even happier with souls that are always full of a memory of the countryside with the kitchen, the noodles… the fluttering! How to cook “hybrid” tapioca porridge with snakehead fish or chicken is basically as follows: Peel and wash the raw cassava, divide it in half. Half sliced ​​thinly, minced. Cut the other half into large, medium-sized pieces. When the water is just warm, add the minced noodles first and let it simmer. Next, add the rest of the tapioca. Clean snakehead fish, cut into long slices, the size of three adult fingers, drain. Drop the fish into the pot at the same time as the large chunks of potatoes. Soup, cooked fish, then take out. Wait to cool. Drain the lean meat, remove all the bones. Next, put about 1/3 of the amount of fish that has been poached back into the porridge pot, to make the porridge more sweet. Or cook with chicken, cut raw chicken into bite-sized pieces, marinate: salt, sugar, monosodium glutamate about 15-20 minutes before. Fry until golden brown with a pinch of purple onion, lightly stir-fry the chicken and then put it in the pot of porridge/potato soup. Finally, season to taste with common spices: sugar, salt, monosodium glutamate. And most importantly, sprinkle a pinch of finely chopped fresh green onions with a few teaspoons of aromatic pepper powder. Articles, photos: Ta Tri