Congee

Rice cooked in twelve times its volume of water until the grains burst and thicken it.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 150 g short grain rice
• 1.8 litres water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Method

1. Rinse the rice twice, no more. Rinsed until the water runs clear you have washed away the surface starch, and the surface starch is what thickens this.
2. Stir the oil into the drained rice and leave it 15 minutes. It helps the grains break open rather than hold their shape.
3. THE RATIO IS ABOUT ONE TO TWELVE by volume, and that is the only number that matters here. Less and you get wet rice; more and you get starchy water.
4. Bring the water to a rolling boil, add the rice, and stir once. Then let it boil hard, uncovered, for 10 minutes — the violence at the start is what starts the grains breaking.
5. Drop it to the lowest simmer and cook 75 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so and scraping the bottom. It will stick and catch if left alone.
6. It is ready when no whole grains are left and a spoon drawn through leaves a trail that closes slowly. If it is too thick, add boiling water rather than cold.
7. Salt it at the end. Salted early, the grains firm up and take longer to collapse.

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