Yummy Toddler Foods: Japanese Pumpkin, Caixin and Minced Pork Porridge

Another post on porridge :)

So far, I have blogged about the following porridges:

1) Chicken porridge (use homemade chicken stock and add unsalted Japanese dried seaweed strips as garnishing)

2) Threadfin and tofu brown rice porridge

3) Sweet corn, green peas and beef porridge

4) Salmon and cauliflower porridge

I did something different for today’s recipe. I added seasonings to the meat – something which I didn’t do when Hannah was below one year of age. So here we go:

Ingredients

  • white rice (1.5 Chinese soup spoon)
  • boiling water (250 ml)
  • organic Japanese pumpkin / butternut pumpkin (1 slice, cut into small chunks)
  • organic cai xin (1 big leaf or 2 small leaves, finely chopped)
  • minced pork fillet (1 heaped tbsp, remove fats and mince further with knife)
  • ginger (1 slice)

Seasoning for minced pork:

  • soy sauce (1/2 tsp, I used Kikkoman’s premium blend)
  • mirin (1/2 tsp)
  • ground white pepper (dash)

Method

1) Place washed rice, boiling water, ginger and pumpkin into slow cooker to cook on ‘high’ setting for an hour.

2) During the last 20 minutes of cooking, finely chop caixin leaves and add to the porridge in the slow cooker.

3) Marinate the minced pork with the seasonings.

3) After one hour of cooking, remove all pumpkin pieces and mashed half of them. Set aside the mashed pumpkin in a serving bowl while the remaining half could be discarded. (Most of the sweetness of pumpkin would have infused into the porridge.)

4) Add the marinated minced pork and stir for a minute to break up the meat in the porridge.

5) Scoop the porridge into the serving bowl with the mashed pumpkin. Mix well. Serve when the porridge has cooled off to just warm.

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