Stay warm with a cosy bowl of congee
Congee is a Chinese comfort dish that is made out of rice and different flavourings. Congee is a very popular dish for a hearty breakfast and is also consumed like chicken noodle soup when we feel under the weather.
Congee, also called “jook” can be found in Chinese restaurants, usually for dim sum or it is often made at home where many different flavours can be infused into the congee. This is a great dish to use up any leftovers in the fridge for flavouring and also freezes well to make easy meals for a busy day.
It is often consumed with leftover meats from a big holiday meal. So often, we use leftover turkey from Christmas dinner in the next day’s turkey congee. I remember fondly enjoying congee throughout my entire childhood.
It truly brought comfort to me since I ate it on so many occasions from family dim sum outings to recovering from my wisdom teeth extractions.
The meal is economical, tasty and just simply satisfying. I know a lot of people haven’t heard of congee so I am super excited to share this recipe with you.
What exactly is congee?
As I mentioned, it is a Chinese dish that consists of cooking rice into a soup-like porridge. It can be made with just rice but often times it is infused with flavours with leftover meats and vegetables. Many countries have a variation of their own congee too.
How do you make congee?
There are a few ways to cook congee. My favourite way is using a pressure cooker since the flavours really get into the congee and best of all, it is very quick to cook. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can also use a slow cooker, rice cooker, and even just a regular ol’ pot.
Rice-to-water ratio
The most important part of making delicious congee is making sure you use the right amount of water for rice. I like to make my congee with 1 cup of rice to 7 cups of liquid (a combination of water and broth). Remember you can always add more liquid but it is much harder to remove the liquid once the congee is cooked.
Should I use cooked or uncooked protein?
If you have a lot of leftover protein from a big holiday meal, you can simply make a plain congee and add the cooked leftover meats to it. But to get the best flavours, you can use bone-in raw protein when making your congee. I will be showing you this method.
Can I make congee ahead of time?
I actually prefer to make congee ahead of time. I usually make a big batch and freeze them in little ziptop bags. This way I can defrost one bag at a time and have a quick lunch or dinner ready to go.
You can also make a dish ahead of time and keep it in the fridge for about three days. Another fun way to prep this meal ahead of time is to put all the raw ingredients into a large zip-top bag and freeze everything together. Once you are ready to cook, you can pop the frozen ingredients into a pressure cooker (or however you are cooking it) and cook it without even having to prep any ingredients.
CONGEE Ingredients
■ 1 cup white rice
■ 1/2 inch ginger, grated
■ 4 cloves garlic, peeled and grated
■ 3 1/2 cups water
■ 3 1/2 cups of turkey broth
■ 2 bone-in raw turkey legs
Garnish
■ Green onions
■ Fried garlic
■ White pepper
Instructions
Rinse rice until most of the starch is out (at least three times)
Add rinsed rice into a large pot, add ginger, garlic, water, turkey broth and turkey legs into the pot
Bring to a boil, and pot lid onto the pot, turn down the heat to medium
Remove cooked turkey legs from the congee and shred the meat off the bones.
Discard the bones and add the meat back into the congee
Taste the congee and see if any additional seasoning is needed. I usually add white pepper at this point
Garnish with green onions and fried garlic
JOYCE LEUNG IS A FOOD WRITER AND BLOGGER WHO LIVES IN HAMILTON. FIND HER TEACHING ASIAN COOKING CLASSES AROUND THE CITY WHEN SHE IS NOT DINING OUT AND TRYING ALL THE DELICIOUS RESTAURANTS OF HAMILTON. JOYCE WILL NOT WRITE ABOUT ANY ORGANIZATIONS SHE HAS A SEPARATE BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH. YOU CAN REACH HER AT JOYCE@JOYCEOFCOOKING.COM