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Friday 1 September 2017

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.