Congee, the Chinese rice porridge that will change the breakfast

The Congee, in its most basic form, is only rice broken down with water or broth. But it also has the capacity to break down cultural barriers and is a gateway to new ways of thinking about how we eat, to get a dollar and find something comforting for breakfast.

In Asian countries and in Chinese culture in particular, reduced water rice is called jook or English, congee. It is often prepared as a tasty breakfast option rather than sugar and milk, like most porridge and oats in the United States and Europe.

But this has begun to change, congee passing from the most bland food you will ever love to a budding star, featured in articles published on the Internet. Congee now offers wellness ingredients, sophisticated toppings and ancient cereals. But before becoming a bowl of fashionable cereals, the congee was a basic porridge, supporting people across many dynasties.

Congee is, and has always been, an easy way to save time, to last the food when there are not many. And in most traditional recipes, it uses a tiny amount of rice compared to water. The rice / water / broth ratio can range from 1: 5 to 1: 8, which means you can use very little to produce a large amount of food.

As a traditional comfort food, rice porridge has been an important part of Chinese food culture for centuries. Historically, congee was served at breakfast or a healing food for the sick, the young and the elderly. With its supposed healing properties and smooth consistency, it is often the first food for babies.

But before it gets connected, congee served breakfast to generations of Chinese growing up around the world. And for Sino-Americans, the congee is a familiar breakfast product, served at many family tables.

I remember that my own mother had added 2/3 cup of rice in a slow cooker, and then filled it with water until the end of cooking. The next morning, a large number of dishes such as pickled vegetables, scrambled eggs and leftovers from the night before would have appeared next to my bowl of cucumber. This, it seems, is a common memory.

Pastry Chef Pamela Yung, who identifies herself as American of Chinese descent, remembers that her freezer had grown up under the name of "simple white rice and soup, with some peanuts". since his morning walk. It was then that I knew I would wake up with a bowl of hot congee and fried croquettes. So, this way, congee was my alarm clock. "

Jenny Dorsey, a US-Chinese chef and consultant who explores the American-Asian experience, told HuffPost that she had also grown up eating congee. For her, "it was always for the toppings". In restaurants, she crullers Yung remembers but at home, the fillings were also pretty traditional and simple. Like my own mother, she made a variety of marinated vegetables, mushroom cucumbers, to accompany their morning cucumber. Some of its favorite fillings are representative of the most traditional and common fillings that can be seen in cucumber restaurants, such as sliced ​​fish or pork loin. Yung also describes similar cucumber-based breakfasts and "some fish cakes or slices of fish that could happily land in your bowl."

The most iconic type of Chinese congee on the menu at most restaurants, and one of Dorsey's favorites, is salted pork and canned egg congee. This traditional dish is served in dim sum carts, in congee style restaurants and, most often, at breakfast. It includes ground pork and canned eggs, also called eggs of the century. The egg of the century takes its name from fermentation (usually a few months) and darkens during its aging, when it is soaked in ash, among other ingredients.

But the egg of the century is something familiar to generations of Chinese and Americans of Chinese descent who have eaten it for snacks and, of course, in addition to their meal of morning. Its yellow is slightly firmer than a simple boiled egg, and the "white", which is now a translucent brown gray, is tasty without being too salty. Its texture is a perfect foil for salted and chewy pork chopped in a smooth congee. Although often considered a "weird food", it is for many, breakfast.

Dorsey remembers that her mother's cucumber had been prepared with rice and water. But his grandparents often did it with a mixture of millet and water to "stretch the rice further" because millet was cheaper. As she points out, "millet was cheaper before becoming cool – an example of a random Asian ingredient falling in white hands" and becoming fashionable. And this has become an important part of why Congee could sneak into the mainstream now. Congee takes advantage of many of our current food trends, ranging from a new interest in ancient grains, to broth culture and our love of "putting an egg on it".

Yung and a few collaborators decided to take advantage of Congee's new popularity with their ephemeral Congee Queens project, originally designed by Yung, Tara Norvell, Katy Peetz and Danny Newberg.

Yung told HuffPost that Congee Queens had been realized "a few weeks after Trump took office, and as women of that country who naively believed that our rights would be protected, we felt vulnerable and threatened. Cooking for a purpose was clearly the right thing to do. We were preparing a humble dish that transcends cultural boundaries, using our own imaginative vision, and at an affordable price, for many people. And, we gave the majority of our recipes to Planned Parenthood. "

In an interview with Munchies, Norvell explained, "The congee has not really been interpreted in America and I want to make it American." Done in water, our traditional notions of food systems and what is a congee.

Yung told HuffPost: "We did not really use traditional toppings; Instead, we used top notch ingredients on the market "and tried to" stay true to the original spirit and spirit. [flavor] profile of [congee]. "

In discussing with these American-Chinese leaders who have also grown up eating congee, it is easy to understand how individual but universal the congee is. Congee has always been a simple foundation, a stepping stone to creating something that belongs to you. It's intimate, comforting and family-trained. And, like Congee Queens, this rice porridge finds its beauty in the "sharing of culinary experiences rooted in love" while celebrating the difference in its garnishes.