Does anyone know how to make chinese congee?

Question

when i i worked in china i often ate the chinese congee that came in a can. I would love to try to make that or something similar , i guess i prefer mine a little sweet , than blan , but right now i don't know how to make either one. no clue :( I would like to know how to make the kind with beans and rice.

Answer 1

Strange that you had to eat congee from a can while in China, with all that lovely fresh congee all around. And the only ones I've ever seen in a can are the sweet dessert types, certainly not savoury porridge.

There's a few distinctly different types of Chinese congee. The most famous is probably Cantonese style, recognised for being thick & very smooth; individual rice grains are practically not seen after a few hours of slow cooking. Then there's thinner porridge with firm rice grains like Teochew-style fish porridge, faster to cook with some furious boiling. And sweet dessert congee made with glutinous rice.

For Cantonese or Hong Kong style congee, try boiling together 170g (6 oz) Thai fragrant long-grain rice, 1.9 liters (4 pints) water, 1/2 tsp salt & 1 tbsp oil until the porridge is thick & smooth. Add another 4 pints of chicken stock (amount to add depending on what consistency you want), stir well & bring to boil. Mix in ingredients like shredded roast chicken meat, minced pork, sliced liver, sliced fish, sliced lean pork etc, whatever you fancy. Garnish with julienned ginger, chopped spring onions & dash of white pepper before eating.

For something sweet, try this Four-Treasure sweet soup. Ingredients are:

20g dried longan flesh

20g lotus seeds (de-skinned & cored, also available canned for convenience)

20g pitted Chinese red dates

1/3 cup glutinous rice

100g rock sugar

4 cups water

Rinse the rice & soak in water for about 30 mins. Bring water to boil, add all ingredients except rock sugar and simmer for 1 hour. Add rock sugar & cook until fully dissolved. This dessert is supposed to help in blood cell regeneration & improve the skin, so women should slurp this up!

Answer 2

It depends on how much you wanna make, how "thick" or "thin" you want it. Use a cup of rice, wash it, then while it's wet and in a bowl, put some oil and salt in there and mix it. Let it sit there while you boil 6-8 quarts of water. Once the water boils, dump the rice mixture into the pot. Hope this helps.