Congee | Recipe — Nom Life

In many of our recipes I say that many Asian dishes are hangover cures, but this dish is not only a hangover cure, it's the cure for everything. Is this an exaggeration? Of course not! Broken heart? Eat congee. Wounded leg? Eat congee. Paper cut? Eat congee. It is such a comfort dish, we get it whenever something ails us.

Traditionally our family uses pork bones / chicken carcasses to make the broth for congee. But sometimes you're lazy and you don't want to be at home all day making broth or leave your stove on all day. So we have two broth options! I will say that the bone broth is the way we usually make it, so it is worth the wait if you have the time and patience. This is a more time intensive recipe, but your leftovers do last a couple of days, and will still be delicious when you warm them up.

INGREDIENTS:

3 large pork back bones or chicken carcass
1 tbsp salt
1-2 dried scallops (this adds a more seafood flavor, so you can omit if you're not about that life). Make sure you rinse your dried scallops and soak in water for 15 mins.
1 cup jasmine rice rinsed + drained
2 scallions chopped long, separate the top and bottom of the scallions
4 slices of ginger julienned, 1 additional slice julienned for garnish
5 cups of water
5 cups of chicken stock
white pepper to taste (I use about 1/4-1/2 tsp in the broth)
salt to taste
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 cup ground pork, rolled into small balls
optional: mix ground pork with 3 minced cloves of garlic, 1 tsp oyster sauce

BROTH SHORT VERSION: (1.5-2 hours)
Sub 2 lb pork bones + 1 tbsp salt with 2 chicken or pork bouillon cubes

TOPPINGS:

top of scallions, chopped
you tiao - Chinese fried dough
pork floss rou sang (!!!! my fav)
fried garlic
white pepper
chili oil

1. For the bone broth version: Slap the bones with that 1 tbsp of salt and let it rest overnight in the fridge.
2. Put the bones in a pot with the water + stock bringing to a rolling boil. Skim off the fat once it comes to the top of the pot--in Chinese we call this skimming the first. Add in your scallion ends (the white part) + ginger.

3. Rinse your rice + let it sit in water for 30 minutes for the rice to soften and open up. Drain the water from the rice.
4. Add rice + dried scallops if adding, simmer on low for an additional hour with the lid slightly ajar to let steam escape from your pot. Make sure to stir the pot gently for the first couple minutes to make sure the rice does not stick to the bottom of the pot + burn.
5. While your soup is simmering, mix your minced pork, oyster sauce, garlic together, or you can simply drop the pork into small balls / droppings right into the pot for a more simple / home-y congee.
6. Add in your minced pork mixture to the soup, separating the pork in the soup so they don't clump together. Simmer for an additional 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. If your rice mixture is looking a bit too thick you can add in additional water or broth and continue to simmer on low. If it’s looking runny, you can turn the heat up and continue to simmer until it reduces. Congee consistency is definitely up to preference!
8. While your congee is simmering, warm up your you tiao in the oven per the package instructions.
9. Top with scallions, fried garlic, and white pepper. I grew up eating pork floss on EVERYTHING, even out of the jar. Jeromy thinks this is the lowest denomination of meat (lol), but I think it's fucking delicious. Toss that warmed up you tiao on there as well.
10. let the healing begin.

1. For the short broth version: Boil the water with your choice of meat bouillon cubes, dried seafood, fish sauce, white pepper and rice for an hour and a half. The rice should be mushy and break apart, so you don't have solid rice in your soup. Simmer for an additional 30 minutes if your rice has not broken apart.
2. Then proceed to step #5 above.

X,

Ewa