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A beginner's guide to congee
The path to understanding Shanghai's love for congee starts with a piping hot, homemade bowl of rice soup -- the perfect accompaniment for a cold city winter morning
A bowl of this stuff goes a long way to warming up a frigid Shanghai morning.What's so great about Shanghai congee? And, maybe more importantly, why is the city so obsessed with its various pickled accompaniments?
The path to understanding the local love for congee, an iconic Chinese breakfast food, starts with a piping hot, homemade bowl of rice soup, variously called congee, porridge or zhou (粥).
And what better time to try than during a Shanghai winter morning? Contrary to popular belief, congee doesn't take hours of grandmotherly patience and stirring to prepare.
Here, we'll share a 10-minute recipe for Shanghai congee that you can easily prepare before heading to work as well as a breakdown of the various jiang cai -- pickled vegetables -- and congee accompaniments you'll find at the local supermarket to spicy up your bowl.
Quick Shanghai congee
(Makes approximately three servings)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup of rice, washed
- Water
- Flavorings of choice (good choices are sliced fish, ginger and green onion, XO sauce, chicken broth sugar and Kabocha pumpkin)
- Accompaniments ingredients (for good choices, see next page)**
- **For all additional ingredients, make sure you slice or dice them finely due to the short cooking time of this congee.
Method
- Begin the night before. In a bowl of rice, add enough water to submerge all the rice. There should be half an inch of water over the rice.
- Place bowl in the fridge overnight.
- In the morning, drain the rice.
- Add the rice and three cups of drinking water into a pot. (Ratio of rice to water should be 1:6.).
- Add additional flavorings or ingredients.
- Cook until the mixture boils. The congee should be ready in 10-15 minutes.
(Click "Next" for a the most popular congree accompaniments.)
