But I deviated from my today’s subject. Congee
came to my awareness as a plane food but with some magic, healthy qualities.
Now that I know much more about it I have realised that congee’s health improving qualities are simply
based on it being easy to digest. It does not cure that much as gives our
system a break to recoup after an illness.
This is what Wikipedia sais about it:
Congee or conjee is a type of rice
porridge or gruel popular in many Asian countries. When
eaten as plain rice congee, it is most often served with side dishes. When
additional ingredients, such as meat, fish, and flavorings, are added while
preparing the congee, it is most often served as a meal on its own, especially
when one is ill. Names for congee are as varied as the style of its
preparation. Despite its many variations, it is definitionally a thick porridge
of rice largely disintegrated after prolonged cooking in water.
Maybe it does not look as something
one would like to try but I am still interested in finding more and learning
how to cook it.
I
decided to try to cook congee one day and I found, to my surprise, many recipes
on a Polish sites. They seemed sensible enough and I gave it a go. After 2
hours of cooking my congee the water disappeared and the rice started to stick
to the bottom of the pot. It was not a success but it was edible. Overcooked
rice on its own has a small appeal to me so I experimented with adding in turn
goji berries, vegetables, honey and nuts. Honey version was the most pleasing.
From
my Chinese friends who treat their food seriously, I got very clear and detail instructions
how to cook this specialty. I bought the right rice, picked the time when I
intended to be at home for a while as it takes around two hours to cook. In
fact my first recipe told me that it takes 4 hours. I was very happy to shorten
the time to just over one hour.
My
second try was following the recipe given by my Chinese friends. This time I
could not believe that I had rice – water proportions right so I changed them
to have less water than it was advised. This was another mistake, I think, as I
got again a very thick concoction. When I compare my product to pictures, I
subsequently found on Internet, I think
that the next time I will follow the recipe to a letter.
Lately I read again about curing power of
congee. Traditionally a congee is cooked as soon as a family member is
developing a cold. Another use is for stomach upsets and for hangovers.
Practical even if time consuming. The hangover cure must be a western use of
the remedy, I do not believe Chinse drink that much. There are stories that Chinese men are very
popular with Russian women who chose Chinese man for husbands as they do not
get drunk and they do not beat their women.
Buying my special congee rice in a Chinese
supermarket in Chatswood, I asked a Asian looking women about how she cooks her
congee. Her answer was – I do not cook it, when I want a congee, I go to a
restaurant.
The other day I was in a Chinese restaurant and
I thought that maybe it would a good time to taste a professional version. To
my great disappointment, the owner of a
very good and authentic, Chinese restaurant did not know of such a dish. Did we
have linguistic or pronunciation problems? Not sure. I feel like I am in a search
of not yet found congee. My post also seems to remind of Proust writing in its verbosity.
I wish, I wish...
