Chinese Congee or Porridge – Stove top method (AKA Jook or Juk)

(by Shirley Mah Kooyman)

This is comfort food in the Cantonese Chinese household, especially when one is ill. Instead of chicken soup we had jook. The best jook I ever had was on the train traveling from Hong Kong to Guangzhou (formerly Canton) a number of years ago. I was so astonished at how tasty it was when I had it for lunch that day. Since then my respect for jook changed markedly. This is a wonderful wintertime porridge. It takes about 2 hours to prepare on the stove top but only ½ hour with an Instant Pot. This recipe is for cooking the jook on the stove top since many people still don’t own an Instant Pot.
You can purchase the shiitake mushrooms, lap cheong & bean curd sticks in any Asian grocery store. The bean curd sticks are the byproducts of tofu production. It’s the skin that floats on top. The skin is skimmed and rolled up before drying. The sticks are usually sold folded in half in the package. I count that as 2 sticks. You can add chicken, pork or ham to the mixture for extra protein. The congee freezes very well.

Ingredients:

¾ cup raw rice (long grained)
6 cups chicken broth (or if using bouillon then dissolve 2 Tablespoons in 6 cups water)
5 shiitake mushrooms, soaked, sliced with hard stipe removed
1” nub of ginger root, finely minced, no need to peel
1 Chinese sausage (lap cheong), sliced
2 sticks of dried bean curd (foo juk), broken into pieces
¼ teaspoon sesame oil Soy sauce, drizzle to taste
3 stalks scallions, use both greens and whites, thinly sliced
Peanuts (optional)

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Directions:

1. In a Dutch oven or large soup pot, put in all the ingredients except for sesame oil, soy sauce, scallions and peanuts. Bring to a rolling boil (takes about ½ hour).
2. Drop the temperature to low, continue stirring. Let it simmer.
3. After 1 hour of cooking, add in 2 ½ cups of water and cook until rice grains are broken and liquid is somewhat absorbed. The cooking time is a total of 2 hours. If the mixture is too thick, add more water. Add sesame oil and soy sauce. Mix well.
4. Just before serving, sprinkle with scallions and peanuts.
5. Serves 4