Unlimited Ways to Comfort in a Bowl of Porridge
I found a recipe for a warm, easily-digestible meal. Imagine having porridge (jook) to help you recover from a minor illness or simply warm up!
Below are some links to more details, including photos:
My Story
On Thanksgiving day, one of my sons was sick, so I wanted to cook porridge for him since it’s something easy to eat and soothing. Because I don’t often make porridge, I went on the internet to refresh my memory on how long the rice needed to be simmered for and what ingredients I could use that were already at home.
Inspiring Recipe
What I came across on my search was the Congee (Chinese Rice Porridge) Recipe from The Spruce Eats website. This recipe had three methods of cooking the dish and many suggestions of how to customize it as well.
First Try
I chose Method 1 to try since it had the best balance of flavor and preparation time.
Ingredients to Use
Using some basic and optional ingredients from the recipe, while adopting others, I ended up including the following:
- 3/4 cup of rice
- 8 cups of water
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 6 slices of ginger
- 3 garlic cloves
- 3 thousand-year-old eggs
- 3 salted eggs
- 6 green onions
- Oil for stir-frying
- Sesame oil
For the basic ingredients, I utilized medium-grain rice and water since I didn’t have anything else available at home.
As for the new items, I got the idea for using thousand-year-old eggs, salted eggs, green onions, and sesame oil from the reference in the recipe to a soft-boiled egg, herbs, and oil for Method 2. However, instead of using soft-boiled eggs, I opted for thousand-year-old eggs and salted eggs to save me time from having to boil eggs. As for the green onions, that was the closest that I had to fresh herbs. Lastly, I used sesame oil for the nutty flavor.
Steps to Prepare
Of the six steps in Method 1, I followed the first two steps. Starting at the third step, I started making minor changes.
In Step 3, I used a saucepan instead of a pot or Dutch oven.
For Step 4, after the rice came to a boil, but before I lowered the temperature for the stove, I added sliced ginger and smashed garlic cloves, instead of the minced version. This way, if someone wanted to take them out of their porridge before eating, the flavors would still be infused in it.
As for Step 5, I cooked the rice for 1 1/2 hours.
Before Step 6, I chopped green onions and stir-fried them in a little bit of oil until they were fragrant.
Lastly, after salting the porridge to taste in Step 6, I diced the eggs and added them to the saucepan, along with the green onions.
Time to Eat
After pouring the porridge in a bowl and adding a swirl of sesame oil, I was ready to dig in!
Recipe Rating
Below were the results of the recipe after the first try:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1️⃣0️⃣* | 🤏 | 💰 | 🙂 |
I enjoyed the aroma from the ginger, flavor from the salted eggs, texture from the thousand-year-old eggs, and sweetness from the green onions.
Unfortunately, my kids didn’t like the salted eggs and the older son didn’t like the sesame oil.
Second Try
For the second batch of porridge, I planned to simplify the flavors.
Ingredients to Use
Since the recipe was so flexible, I was able to pare down the toppings and use the following items:
- 3/4 cup of rice
- 8 cups of water
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 6 slices of ginger
- 3 garlic cloves
- 3 thousand-year-old eggs
As compared to the first batch, I just eliminated the ingredients that my kids didn’t like, along with the stir-fried green onions that I didn’t have any of.
Steps to Prepare
After removing the steps related to the items that I cut, the process was the same as the first time.
Time to Eat
Even though this version of the porridge was simpler, I still couldn’t wait to scoop it up.
Recipe Rating
Below are the results of the recipe from the second attempt:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6️⃣* | 🤏 | 💰 | 🙂 |
The porridge was less salty since it didn’t have any salted eggs, but the kids liked it more. For me, I tried it with leftovers from the second batch of chicken drumsticks that I previously made, hoping for more saltiness, but I still preferred the salted eggs from before.
Though porridge isn’t something I would regularly make, I would definitely reference this recipe when the need or craving arose. What I plan to do next time is the following:
Continuous Improvement
- Try Method 2 in the recipe.
After referencing a recipe that permitted me to customize a dish, I learned the following:
Lesson for Dumber Self
- Flexibility invites creativity.
What will you do now?
Next Step for You
- Try the Congee (Chinese Rice Porridge) Recipe from The Spruce Eats website?
- Learn about the history of Chinese porridge starting with Congee: The History Of The Chinese Porridge And Its Variants from Slurp’s website?
- Read another post on this site? (Go to the menu at the top of the page.)