Beat-the-bug congee

The husband and I were both struck down by a flu bug last week (thank goodness the little’un escaped with nothing more than a runny nose! She’s a bullet, that one!) Both of us were feeling pretty sorry for ourselves, and some comfort food was in order.

This time, I started with a pork and carrot base for flavour, and then went for the bug-fighters. Lots of ginger, garlic and spinach and some goji berries too.

Ingredients:

250g minced pork

3 tbsp light soy sauce

A few dashes of white pepper

200g rice (Any variety will do, I used long grain)

1 inch piece of ginger, peeled (I used a bit more than this, about 1.5 inches)

3-4 garlic cloves, peeled

1 carrot, peeled and sliced into chunks

1200g water (you can use stock for a richer flavour too but I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary)

Handful goji berries (you can buy these at health food stores but they’re much cheaper at the Asian grocers)

Handful spinach

White pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil, fried garlic, fried shallots to taste (optional)

Method

– Marinate the minced pork with the soy and pepper. Set aside for at least 20 minutes. I normally do this the day or morning before.

– Pop the rice in the TMX bowl and mill for 5 secs/speed 9.This is a LOUDDDD process, so if you have any infants around, put them somewhere else or be prepared to deal with them freaking out like I did!

– Set rice aside.

– Pop ginger, carrot chunks and garlic into the bowl and chop for 7 secs/speed 5 until finely minced.

– Add rice back into bowl, pour your water in and add in the goji berries, and cook for 12mins/100 degrees/reverse/speed 1 (MC off)

– Add in teaspoons of your mince, give the bowl a good stir, and cook for a further 12min/100/reverse/speed 1. Add your spinach in through the hole in the cover in the last 2 mins of cooking.

– Make sure your spinach is mixed in. The congee may appear a bit watery, but let it stand for a few minutes or so and it’ll thicken up.

Other variations I’ve tried:

– The original EDC cookbook version

– My normal congee

– Congee with an extra side

– What to do with your leftover meats!

 

Christmas Congee

Whizzed up another quick congee with leftover ham, spring onions and carrots from Christmas lunch. Needed something clean and oil-free after all that richness!

Basic congee recipe here. I omitted the soy and sesame oil, the ham I used had more than enough flavour for the porridge.

Pork congee with fried dace and black beans

(Previous posts here and here)

I’ll say it again, the Thermomix is a congee genius. I’m trying my best to go with different TMX recipes each time, but this one’s definitely a household staple especially during winter!

Didn’t pop any spinach in this time. The dace and black beans can be bought at most Asian groceries, and provide a nice textural change along with a whack of salt. I also added deep-fried shallots for a bit of crunch.

Pork Congee (Porridge)

(Recipe adapted from the A Taste of Asia TMX cookbook).

Westerners might be thinking WHY, WHY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WOULD YOU PUT PORK IN YOUR OATMEAL!!! If you are, calm down. Deep breaths.

Porridge or congee is one of the definitive Asian comfort foods. You start with your base of rice and stock, and then put whatever you feel like in it – dried scallops, fish, pork, chicken, salted egg, the list goes on. And, if you’re feeling under the weather, a plain congee with some Marmite/Vegemite stirred through is awesome. Trust me.

I was stoked to find out that the Thermomix makes the best porridge! The texture was just as I liked, starchy, thick and – with the recipe I followed – super tasty. Best of all, you can leave it to cook while you go off and get other things done, rather than having to stand at the stove stirring, stirring and stirring some more. I realised after we’d walloped the porridge that I didn’t take a good enough photo of the end product, which is a shame. But I’d highly recommend giving this recipe a go so you can see (and taste) for yourself.

Ingredients

200g rice

1.4l water (I put approx 1200g into the TMX bowl, I was too lazy to find a measuring cup)

2 tbsp Dry Stock (you can make your own from this recipe book, but I just used powdered chicken stock)

300g chicken, sliced (I used pork, marinated overnight with sesame oil, soy and white pepper)

1/4 tsp cornflour

1 tsp soy sauce

Salt, sesame oil, white pepper and sugar to taste

Chopped spring onions/shallots, julienned ginger and fried crispy shallots to garnish (all these condiments are fantastic with porridge, as well as fried garlic. I didn’t have any of this though this time)

To up the veggie content, I cut one carrot into chunks, and also had a 2cm piece of ginger that I had left over.

Method

• Place rice into TM bowl and mill for 5 seconds/speed 8-9. Set aside.

• Because I wanted some veggies in my porridge, I popped the carrot chunks and ginger into the TMX bowl and chopped the veggies up for about 8 seconds/speed 6. Basically until it looks like this.

• Add milled rice back in, along with the water and stock powder, and cook for 12 minutes/100 degrees/reverse/speed 1.

• If you haven’t seasoned your meat, do so now. But I recommend leaving the meat to marinate for at least a couple of hours (overnight is best), it does wonders to the flavour of the porridge.

• Add seasoned meat and cook for a further 12 minutes/100 degrees/reverse/speed soft.
• If the porridge is too thin, let it stand for two minutes. I find that by the time you ladle the porridge into your bowls, it’s pretty much at the perfect consistency (although I know it doesn’t really look like it here)

• Season with whatever you fancy – salt, pepper, Vegemite, sesame oil, go nuts. Done.