Ground Pork and Corn Congee (Chinese Rice Porridge) Recipe

A breakfast and lunch staple in quite a lot of Asian international locations and a mainstay at the black sum hall, congee is rice and water (or broth) cooked down into a thick porridge. While you maintain below no circumstances had it before, it doubtlessly would no longer sound severely challenging. But honest as a bowl of oatmeal would perchance well also very successfully be as straight forward or as challenging as you wish it to be, so too does congee develop a delicate, comforting canvas to which you may perchance perchance well be ready to add your flavors and seasonings of option.

You doubtlessly would perchance well make it vegetarian: chopped romaine lettuce, blended mushrooms, or kale, within the occasion you may perchance perchance well presumably esteem. You doubtlessly would perchance well make it meaty: rooster and ginger, roast turkey congee (that is really apt one of my popular systems to use leftover Thanksgiving turkey), or offal (for the more adventurous). You doubtlessly would perchance well moreover add seafood: smooth salmon, canned tuna, or blended shellfish. There’s even congee hot pot, the set aside you dunk raw ingredients into a simmering communal pot of porridge before fishing it out and ingesting it along with the rice.

But really apt one of my popular combinations is simplest in unhurried summer season, when corn is at its sweetest: ground pork and smooth corn kernels. Straightforward to make, this congee is my lunge-to meals when I desire a delicate-weight meal. And don’t difficulty within the occasion you do no longer utilize pork—ground turkey, ground rooster, and even no meat at all will work honest enticing.

Shimmering the ideally favorable water-to-rice ratio is the first to cooking a ideally favorable pot of congee. Each person does it a runt in every other case. It would perchance well also very successfully be cooked the usage of more than a couple of grains of rice, varied kinds and quantities of liquid, and varied cooking times. Every option can affect the best flavor and consistency. As an illustration, Cantonese congee, identified as jook, in total has an even bigger water-to-rice ratio than okayu, Japanese congee. Jook can be cooked with long grain rice whereas okayu is made with short grain rice. While jook is cooked basically with water, congee in most Southeast Asian international locations, esteem Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines, uses broth or a combination of broth and water. Cooking time also varies—jook takes at the least an hour whereas okayu usually takes half of an hour.

I desire a develop of hybrid model, and after significant trial and blunder, I’ve arrived at the top recipe for a congee that’s silky and comforting whereas no longer being sludgy or overly heavy.

Unlike okayu though, I cook dinner the congee with an even bigger water-to-rice ratio and the cooking time is longer honest esteem jook. One thing I esteem about okayu is how creamy and silky the feel is. Brief grain rice tends to be stickier than long grain rice due to its excessive level of amylopectin starch. Thanks to this, short grain rice takes on a velvety texture after it’s cooked for an awfully long time-frame. It be a time-ingesting direction of, but it completely’s an effortless one: All it takes is a pair of stirs now and again to make certain the rice is no longer always in fact sticking to the bottom of the pot and burning.

While the rice cooks, I win my lumber-ins ready. I combine ground pork with somewhat of grated ginger and garlic, along with some standard Chinese seasonings: Shaoxing wine, sugar, salt, soy sauce, and a disappear of cornstarch, which can support prevent the meat from turning intriguing because it simmers.

Subsequent, I decrease sweet corn kernels off of the cob. Once the congee is cooked, I add the meat, stirring it in and letting it simmer for honest a runt while till it’s cooked via but quiet gentle.

In repeat to add some texture to the dish, I add the corn off-heat, making decided that it would no longer lose its crunch.

A disappear of salt and a sprinkle of scallions later, and you’ve got bought really apt one of my popular straight forward meals. In Asia, it’s usually eaten for breakfast, but let’s be loyal right here: I would no longer flip down a bowl any time of the day.

September 2014

• 1/2 pound (225g) ground pork (watch notes)

• 1/2 teaspoon minced smooth ginger

• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (about 1 little clove)

• 1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine

• 1/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt, plus more to taste; if the usage of table salt, use half of as significant by volume

• 1/4 teaspoon sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

• 1 1/2 teaspoons (4g) cornstarch

• 2 teaspoons vegetable or canola oil

• 1/2 cup (115g) short grain rice, rinsed and drained

• 1 cup corn kernels (160g), eradicated from 1 wide ear of corn

• 2 scallions, chopped (non-important)

1. In a medium bowl, combine pork, ginger, garlic, Shaoxing wine, salt, sugar, soy sauce, cornstarch, and oil. Mix till successfully combined and set aside aside in fridge.

2. In a wide pot, add 6 cups water (1.4L) and rinsed rice. Cloak pot with a lid, bring to a boil over excessive heat, then gash heat to again a simmer. After Quarter-hour, lumber rice, making decided it’s no longer sticking to the bottom then duvet pot. Crawl rice Quarter-hour after the first lumber, duvet pot, and cook dinner till congee is creamy and silky, about half-hour.

3. Add ground pork, breaking up meat into little bits, and continue to cook dinner with lid off till ground pork is cooked via, 5 to 10 minutes.

4. Off-heat, add corn and season with salt to taste. Garnish with scallions, if the usage of, and again at once.

Notes

You doubtlessly would perchance well change ground turkey or rooster for the ground pork, or cross over the meat entirely.