This is another way to make basic congee, but waaay faster! Basic Congee is a Cantonese style rice porridge, cooked with a dreamy creaminess that beats any other rice porridge you’ve ever had! This basic congee is then mixed with other meat and vegetable ingredients to create the final delicious congee dish.
Quickly start making congee with uncooked rice. Rinse the rice in a sieve until the water runs clear.
The only other ingredient needed is century eggs 皮蛋, which are duck eggs preserved in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime (calcium oxide), and rice husk. The preservation process turned the yolk a gray-green color and the white a translucent dark brown. It transforms the egg into another realm of flavours, complex and quite pungent with just a hint of ammonia, a bit like that in some of the great cheeses.
Added to this basic congee, the century egg adds amazing flavor to the creamy rice as well as being the secret to quickly cooking congee. We Love egg of the century!
Century egg and washed rice are mixed together. I tried to understand the exact chemical process that occurs that allows this combination to produce congee that cooks so quickly, but I soon gave up. I’m not a chemist and it was all rather beyond my capabilities.
All I know for sure is that it worked like a charm and I was able to make the congee in a third of the time it normally takes! Whoopee!
The century egg is mashed into uncooked rice. I simply cut the egg and then mashed it with one end of the rolling pin until I was happy. You can also use a food processor to blend the egg and then mix it with the rice.
The only thing not to do is pulverize the rice grains themselves, either in their raw state or later when cooking the rice. This is a trick that some congee shops use to “cheat” and save a lot of time in preparing their congee. But the quality will tell, and congee made this way will separate after sitting in the bowl for a while, leaving the grains and rice water separated. Sorry folks, that’s not congee.
Cover and place the mixture in the freezer overnight. I’m not sure it’s absolutely necessary to do this. Maybe just relax for a few hours and no freezer? I will try different methods in the future and report back. But for now we recommend putting the freezer in overnight.
The next day we add the water and start cooking. These are the rice grains after 15 minutes of cooking. You can see that the grains have already been broken down quite a bit.
These are the rice grains after half an hour of cooking. See how the rice grains have completely dissolved, leaving only a rice porridge with a creamy texture. Oh, yum! Creamy, warm and delicious melted rice… this is the kind of congee worth talking about!
(4 servings) Prep time: 5 minutes Marinating time: Overnight Cooking time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
Rinse the rice several times in water until the water is clear. Subject to tension.
Wash the ash from the century egg (if any) and peel it. Coarsely chop the egg. Or run it through the food processor to pulverize it.
Add the rice and egg. If you use a mix of coarsely chopped century eggs and then mash the egg into the rice grains as much as possible. I used one end of the rolling pin. If you have pulverized the egg all you have to do is mix.
Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rest overnight in the freezer.
The next day, let the mixture thaw until you can remove it from the bowl and place it in a pot. Add the tofu skin to the rice/egg mixture (if you use it) and water. Heat over high heat. When the water boils, reduce the heat and cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until the rice grains have completely broken down into a creamy consistency.
Be sure to keep an eye on the pot, especially at first as the starchy water has a tendency to boil over. Also, towards the end, if the congee thickens but still needs more cooking time add more water otherwise the bottom will burn.
Once you reach the creaminess, add more boiling water as needed to reach the consistency you prefer for the congee. Add salt to taste.
Pour into bowls and serve hot. Enjoy!
*The 腐竹 tofu skin will melt into the congee, adding extra oomph to the creaminess.
