Congee
Hi again friends!
Today’s advice: If you want to make Chinese rice porridge, do it with jasmine rice. Don’t try to do it with long-grained rice. Here’s why:
Yesterday’s delicious porridge, made with jasmine rice:
Glossy!
Delectable!
So happy in my tummy!
(Note: on a whim, I sliced SNOW PEAS into tiny tiny little slices and tossed them in after it was completely cooked. They looked pretty and tasted great.)
IN CONTRAST, today’s porridge, made with long grained rice:
:(
:((((((((((((
Mostly it was a texture issue. The jasmine rice absorbed a lot of water, retained some chewiness, and the texture of the grains was still there even after it cooked down. The long-grained rice just disintegrated into a pathetic puddle without absorbing much of anything. It was Not Good.
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Here’s how you make Chinese rice porridge, my style. This is a comfort food I grew up with. Traditionally, the porridge should be served plain in bowls, with little salty side dishes like dried fish and fermented tofu and spicy pickled bamboo shoots (YUM!). I miss those side dishes, but don’t usually have them at my disposal, so I compromise by adding vegetables and broth.
Basic Congee Recipe:
1. Get jasmine rice. (You can rinse it a few times if you want, it won’t kill you if you don’t.)
2. Put it in a pot with a bunch of water. Boil boil boil!! (Probably for a half hour at least)
3. Taste it to check if it’s soft enough. When you think it tastes good, it’d done! THIS IS TOTALLY SUBJECTIVE.
So that was easy, right? I like to make this in the morning when I’m not quite conscious, so that shows you how foolproof it is.
Variations:
*VEGGIES: Add harder vegetables (carrots, celery) with the rice at the start of cooking and soft vegetables (scallions, sliced peas) at the end.
*BROTH: Stir in some dashi (Japanese bonito fish powder) and/or miso AFTER you’ve turned off the heat. You could also make this with chicken broth in place of water and I’m sure it would be tasty!
*MEAT: Cook separately, just stir it in at the end. This is a great way to use up leftovers.
Love,
Grace
