Congee with Century Egg

Congee with salted pork and century egg, half the egg stirred in and half kept back.

Pork, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

• 150 g short grain rice
• 1.8 litres water
• 250 g pork loin, in one piece
• 1 teaspoon salt, for curing the pork
• 2 century eggs, peeled and quartered
• 1 tablespoon ginger, finely shredded
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

Method

1. Rub the teaspoon of salt into the pork and leave it in the fridge overnight. Salted pork holds together in the congee and shreds cleanly; unsalted pork goes woolly.
2. Rinse the pork, put it in with the rice and water, and cook the congee as the plain one: hard boil 10 minutes, then the lowest simmer, stirring every 10 minutes.
3. After 45 minutes lift the pork out, shred it with two forks, and return it to the pot.
4. At 75 minutes, stir in HALF the century egg and let it dissolve for 5 minutes. It thickens the congee and turns it faintly grey, which is expected.
5. KEEP THE OTHER HALF BACK and put it in the bowls whole. Stirred in entirely, the egg disappears into the texture and there is nothing left to bite; this way you get both.
6. Ladle into bowls over the reserved egg, and top with the ginger, spring onion, sesame oil and white pepper.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes