Ingredients
1 cup long grain rice
3 qt stock [i used chicken stock. s.c.]
2 tbsp minced chinese preserved turnip
1 slice ginger root, minced
1 piece tangerine peel, soaked to sof, ten and minced
1 salt
1 garnish of:
1 chopped green onion
1 chopped coriander
1 slivered preserved ginger
1 sliced tea melon
Directions
In all my years of eating and cooking Chinese food, I'd never tried
Congee (rice gruel) before yesterday. It just seemed so *bland* that
I thought it couldn't possibly be all that interesting. I was WRONG!
The recipe below gives a subtle but hearty "soup" which can be
garnished in a virtually infinite number of ways according to
personal taste. I found that I like just the basic stuff,
unembellished the best. I substituted half a cup of long grain rice
and half a cup of glutinous rice for the long grain rice and it
worked very well. The preserved turnip seems to be used mostly for
its salt content. I found it unnecessary to add any more salt to the
congee. The tangerine peel gives a very subtle, nice hint of exotic
perfume to the dish. The pot I made set up almost like a pea soup
when it cooled. Good stuff! Ridiculously easy too...
Congee (Jook)
Combine rice, stock, preserved turnip, ginger and tangerine peel in a
large soup pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, uncovered
approximately 1-1 1/2 hours or until the rice is thoroughly broken
up. Stir occasionally to prevent soup from sticking and add boiling
water if necessary. When done, soup should be thick and creamy. Add
salt to taste and garnish with any or all of the suggested garnishes.
Variations: Just before serving, add cooked chicken, pork, ham or
beef. Or with rice add diced forest mushrooms, soaked to soften or
dried shrimp.
From "The Regional Cooking of China" by Margaret Gin and Alfred E.
Castle, 101 Productions, San Francisco, 1975.
Servings: 6 servings
Congee - Rice Gruel Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Rice; Vegetable
The History of Recipes
Academics have tracked the existance of recipes way back into ancient history, in fact as far back as the Egypt of the Pharoahs, and maybe even further. Having said that, in the main part, these old recipes were just very simple hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for preparing meals.
In fact, the oldest recipe discovered so far, according to academics are a few tablets in the Sumerian language which show the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making anyone who drank it feel blissful and exhilarated. Later on, in The time of the romans around 25BC a roman called Apicius compiled a collection of documents detailing recipes enjoyed by the Romans. In his publication, Apicius tells us how the roman meals were separated into starters, main meal and afters, something that is very familiar to us today. Additionally, he describes how the ancient Romans were skilled in the use of a wide range of herbs, including a few you will know such as thyme, fennel and parsley. Later on in the 1400s, knights returning from the crusades brought back a variety of spices and herbs from Arab cuisine, such as parsley and basil. The introduction of these new tastes was responsible for an explosion in manuscripts on cookery, some of which are now in private libraries. The arrival of television brings us TV cooks and the accompanying recipe books. Which brings us neatly to the present day and the internet revolution, permitting everyone to access massive numbers of recipes just like those on the site you are now reading. |
We hope you enjoy this Congee Rice Gruel recipe.
