Congee rice

So it's the first of September and heading towards my favourite time of year - autumn! It's sunny but not that warm today and I'm fighting off a cold so dusted off a warming staple I've not made in ages - congee or chao ga, rice porridge.

It's basically a savoury rice pudding, gloopy and warming, great for hangovers and sore throats.

It can be as thick or as watery as you like, and really you can use any type of rice. Personally I prefer a custard-like mush, but a more watery consistency is more traditional.

• 1 cup rice
• 6 cups Swiss Marigold vegetable stock

1. Rinse the rice or soak for half an hour.
2. Bring stock to the boil, add the rice and stir.
3. Boil for 10 minutes, then reduce and simmer covered for 1 hour or so.

Serve in a bowl topped with something savoury like stir-fried vegetables with ginger, strips of quorn, mushrooms, tofu, or fried egg, garnished with spring onions or herbs and splashed over with rich soy sauce. The combination of soft gooey rice and salty flavours is the ulimate comfort food!

Variations

This is the perfect use for any kind of leftover rice, and it's great for breakfast. Cooked rice also takes a lot less time.

Any kind of rice will do but I often use brown rice which takes a bit longer, but is presumably more healthy. Jasmine rice or broken rice works is more traditional. A mixture of half ordinary rice, half glutinous/sticky rice gives a nice silky consistency.

For more flavour add half an onion to the pot, or a thumb of smashed ginger that you can fish out later. The flavouring is nice but I prefer my congee plain so it gives a nice contrast to whatever you put on top.

Asian noodle salad

It's been too long since I posted but this recipe deserved to be shared! It's so simple but looks elegant, it's cool for the summer and looks great on a plate!

Instead of the usual fish sauce found in Thai salad recipes, my secret ingredient is Golden Mountain Sauce (sweeter, saltier and more complex than traditional soy sauce), plus a sprinkling of dried seaweed flakes.

I'm listing ingredients here rather than quantities, this is just a guide so it's really up to your taste what you throw in. Authentic Asian salads are too hot for me so I use a medium chilli, or a combination of red bell pepper and a hot chilli pepper. For authenticity use Asian mint, basil and coriander - personally I loathe coriander so substitute flatleaf parsley:

• 1 large carrot
• 1/3 of a cucumber
• 2 spring onions
• red pepper or chilli pepper, to taste
• handful of peanuts
• mint
• basil
• coriander or parsley
• rice vermicelli
• Golden Mountain sauce (or soy sauce)
• sesame oil
• juice of half a lime
• seaweed flakes
• 1/2 tsp sugar

1. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil then add the dry noodles. Pop on the lid, take off the heat and leave to rehydrate for about 10 minutes. Don't leave them too long, better to err on the side of caution as they'll continue to soften later.
2. Meanwhile finely slice - or julienne if you're being fancy - the carrots, cucumber, spring onion and pepper.
3. Chop - or chiffonade, if you're being even more fancy - the herbs.
4. Crush or chop a handful of peanuts.
5. To make the dressing, in a bowl add a good glug of Golden Mountain sauce, a splash of sesame oil and lime juice. Mix in a sprinkling of sugar, and taste it. If it tastes good your job is half done.
6. When the noodles are ready, drain, rinse in cold water and leave to drain.
7. In a large bowl, combine the noodles, vegetables and herbs, then mix in the sauce.
8. Mix in about a half of the crushed peanuts, then sprinkle the rest on the top to serve.

On a hot day this salad actually benefits from being chilled for half an hour or so, which really allows the flavours to develop. Just don't leave it too long!