Congee

Since travelling through Asia many years ago I developed a love of Congee.  What is congee?  Essentially rice porridge.   Across Asia, there are country and regional variances and consistency but it all comes down to it being the bowl of comfort soup. 

This particular day, I awoke with a craving for comfort and to me this has become congee over the years. 

In China, it's typically cooked with pork and century egh,served with shallots and deep fried wonton shards.  However, the flavour combinations are endless. A fav is chicken and ginger or in Cambodia, which it is known as bobor, sundried fish and white pepper.

Today i went with a simple congee of pork mince, topped with peanuts, dried chilli anchovies, a shallot and ginger sauce with coriander and a drizzle of sesame oil and soy sauce dusted with white pepper.

Perfection.

There is no exact timing to make congee.  I use half a cup of rice with about a litre of water. Bring to the boil and turn down to simmer slowly until the consistency is smooth and blended. Stir occassionally.  Add water if its getting to dry and its not soupy enough.

Near the end of cooking I throw in approx 100g of pork mince to gently cook through.

Top with choice topping and spoon into a serving bowl for comfort eating.