Recipe for Congee with Mushrooms (xianggu zhou 香菇粥)

For me, congee (or jook or zhou 粥 or xifan 稀饭) is the ultimate comfort food. It’s what my parents fed me when I was ill, what I crave on a cold day, and what soothes me after one too many greasy Beijing meals.  It’s healthy, nourishing, and works wonders for a hangover.  Also, it makes a cup of rice go a long way, which is nice for these frugal student days. It has a long history among Chinese foods. Ancient foodies argued over the types of rice, water, and fire made combined to make the perfect congee, and many (including my family) consider it irreplaceable for its medicinal properties -  because it’s both easily digestable and helps to hydrate the body.

This simple rice porridge provides the basis for endless variations.  Among Asian folk, rice porridge is eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner, whether as a thinnish gruel or oatmeal-chunky, and can be flavored simply with water and salt, or strongly with chicken stock and garlic. It can also be garnished with anything, from kimchee to thousand-year-old preserved egg.  My preference is for relatively plain Cantonese-style white congee: while the preserved egg and pork slivers combination is perennially popular, my favorite is thinly sliced raw beef and fish, which is dumped straight into the bowl and becomes lightly poached by the hot rice.

As a result of its base simplicity, it’s also a supremely versatile dish – add water if it’s too thick, and top it with whatever you can find in the fridge.  This time I had fresh shiitakes but on occasion I’ve used minced pork, sliced beef, chicken, and even just plain peanuts.  The recipe below is for plain congee, flavored with a bit of bouillon and topped with with scallions and ginger and a meaty clump of soy-sauced shiitake mushrooms. My version is also super thick – as one Chinese emperor once declared to his administration during a famine where the populace was fed rice-stretching congee, if a pair of chopsticks can’t stand up straight in the bowl, there isn’t enough rice.

There are many recipes for congee, and they all seem to have a much longer prep and cook time than is really necessary.  I like to get this type of homey food into a bowl in under a half hour with minimal fuss.  There are, however, a couple of basic congee hints: First, if you’ve thought ahead, let the uncooked rice sit in the water for a while (anywhere from a few minutes to hours). It’s not necessary, but it helps it cook faster and smoother. Next, do NOT wash the rice. The starch on the rice helps to make the porridge thicker. Lastly, stirring and agitating the congee frequently as it is cooking helps to break up the grains and thickens the porridge much faster. All in all, it’ll take about 30 minutes and is hassle-free, since consistency is entirely up to personal preference.

Recipe (for 2 big bowls)

• 1/2 cup of rice
• 2 cups of water (plus another 3ish cups as needed)
• one chicken or vegetable boullion cube (optional)
• 1 tablespoon julienned ginger
• 2 tablespoons sliced scallions (or to taste)
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (or to taste)
• 2 cups of shiitake mushrooms, roughly chopped (or any other type of mushroom)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

1. Place the rice and 2 cups of water into a pot. If you have a dutch oven or ceramic casserole pot, use that instead. Let it sit for a while if you have time; if not, no matter. Please don’t wash the rice first! Dissolve the boullion and add it to the pot, or use 1/2 teaspoon of salt if you don’t have boullion. Also, if you have stock, you can swap out half the water for the stock, which results in extra delicious congee.

2. Put the pot on the burner, and turn it up to high, and put the cover on. When the water boils, stir the rice around vigorously for a minute, then turn it down to medium-low heat and put the cover back on. Check on the rice every 5 minutes, and add 1/2 cup of water each time (or a bit more if the congee is too thick to really stir around. It should be a little more watery than oatmeal – see Picture 2), and stir the rice around for about 30 seconds. After about 20-25 minutes, the rice should be cooked, but still individual grains (Picture 3 above). Toss in the ginger.

3. At this point, the congee is done. However, I like my congee more porridge-like, with broken rice and very little water, so at this point, I just keep on stirring and agitating it until it break up more (Picture 4 above). Keep adding some water if it gets too thick, or if you prefer a thinner congee.

4. While the congee is cooking, heat up a pan on medium heat and add a bit of oil. Toss in the chopped mushrooms when the pan is hot, and add the soy sauce, salt, and sugar. Stir the whole thing around, and cook until the mushrooms are tender (they will shrink to about 1/3 the size) and set aside. Add a little more soy sauce and salt if needed – the mushrooms should be pretty salty, since they’re intended to add flavor to the mildly seasoned congee.

5. When the congee is at the consistency you like, turn off the heat, and dish it up into a bowl. Top with the mushrooms, scallions, and cilantro. Eat, and feel warm and fuzzy inside.