Category: Fuchsia Dunlop

chinese congee

Chicken Congee

Congee or jook in Hakka is a breakfast staple in Chinese families. Jook also makes a light simple supper. It’s nutritious, a one bowl meal that includes carbs, protein, and vegetables. Very textural, it combines fresh flavours with preserved, so you get crunchy, crispy, salty, tangy,  aromatic, and sour all in a spoonful. It takes hours of simmering to get the rice this soft. However, this version was not simmered on the stove but in a slow cooker, thanks to a recipe by Melissa Clark at New York Times Cooking. She uses short grain rice, which I never thought of, and which makes a lot of sense. It’s starchier than long grain rice, and makes a perfect porridge. I recommend smashing the ginger to get a stronger gingery flavour in the rice. Drawback: it takes up to 10 hours to cook before you can sit down and enjoy it. So if you want congee for breakfast, you’ll have to set it the night before. Traditionally in Thailand, joke as it is called here, is served with a raw egg cracked open in the middle of the steaming hot porridge. The heat of the rice coddles the raw egg to an ethereal creamy consistency. However, I think raw eggs are risky so I poached mine. A runny soft egg in congee is delicious.

Congee (adapted from Melissa Clark, NY Times Cooking)
Time: 8-10 hours
Yield: 4 servings

For the Congee:
1/2 cup short-grain rice
6 cups water
1 inch knob of fresh ginger, peeled and smashed
2 shiitake mushroom caps, stemmed
2 chicken thighs, bone in, trimmed of fat with skin removed
White pepper to taste
2-4 poached eggs

For the accompaniments:
1/3 cup pickled vegetables, chopped into bite size pieces
1 tablespoon fried shallots (available in jars at the store)
1 tablespoon fried garlic (available in jars at the store)
1/4 cup diced scallion
1/4 cup diced cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh ginger peeled and slivered
chili oil, to taste (Available in stores, but I recommend Fuchsia Dunlop’s recipe)
Maggi seasoning, to taste (can use low sodium soy sauce instead)

Put rice and water in the ceramic bowl of the slow cooker. Add the ginger, chicken and white pepper. Stir. Cook on high for 1 hour. Skim off any scum and reduce to low. Let simmer 7-9 hours or until the rice has swelled,  is soft and mushy, and the water is thickened. Remove the ginger and discard. Remove the mushroom caps and slice into slivers and return to the pot. Remove the chicken and shred with a fork. Return shredded chicken to the pot, discarding bone and gristly parts. Meanwhile, poach eggs. Spoon congee into bowls, top with one egg each per diner,  and serve immediately with accompaniments.

Variation:
Make a pork meatball version, another Thai tradition. Season a 1/2 pound of ground pork with salt and pepper. Make small meatballs, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. One hour before cooking time is up, add the meatballs and cook for 1 hour until no longer pink.

hangzhou sweet and sour pork

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We were in Hangzhou two years ago when we went down to the West Lake on our first evening to watch the fountain, light, and music show. Afterwards, we went into this restaurant called Grandmother’s Kitchen for dinner. That’s when I first tasted sweet and sour pork,  Hangzhou style,  and I was surprised by its honest fresh flavour. The sauce wasn’t sticky, sweet, and dense, like the Chinese- American restaurant version, but lightly sweet with tart notes and a pleasant sour base that made you want to eat more of it. This recipe from Fuchsia Dunlop’s cookbook Land of Fish and Rice brings me back to that night in Hangzhou.

Hangzhou Sweet and Sour Pork
Time: 30 minutes
Yield: serves 2 if a main meal

For the pork:
10 oz/275g pork tenderloin
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
2 tablespoons potato starch
4 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon sesame oil, optional
A handful of scallions, green parts only, cut into 1 or 2 inch/2.5-5cm lengths
Rice bran oil or vegetable oil for deep frying

For the sauce:
3 tablespoons superfine sugar
2 tablespoons Chinkiang vinegar (can substitute Balsamic Vinegar)
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1 teaspoon potato starch mixed with 2 teaspoons cold water

Split the tenderloin in half lengthwise then cut each half into 1/2 inch thick pieces. Put pork into a medium bowl and add the salt and wine/sherry. Mix well.
In a large bowl, mix together potato starch and flour with 5 tablespoons water. Stir with chopsticks to make a thick batter. Add pork to the batter and stir well to coat. Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

In a wok, heat about an inch of oil to 350˚F/150˚C. Using a pair of chopsticks, drop the pieces of pork into the hot oil. Don’t crowd the pan. Fry in batches 3 minutes or until just cooked through. Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel lined plate to drain. Reheat the oil to 375-400˚F/190-200˚C. Fry the pork again until browned and crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on the paper towel lined plate. Carefully pour off the hot oil into a heat-proof container. Wipe out the wok.

Return the pork to the dry wok over high heat. Give the sauce a quick stir and immediately pour it all over the base of the wok. When the sauce starts to boil and thicken, stir quickly to coat the pieces in the sauce, which will reduce to a sticky glaze. Remove to a serving plate and sprinkle scallion greens on top.