Who likes congee (juk)?

How easy to make! I threw a block of frozen chicken stock, one cup of rice, and a handful of salt-cured duck gizzards
into a pot.

After three hours of simmering, a thick, creamy, and flavor-rich porridge resulted, with virtually no tending or mess.
To serve, I put olive oil, pickled ginger slivers, and a raw egg into a ceramic bowl, ladled over the hot congee, and
finally garnished with diced scallions and sriracha sauce. OMG.

Had this in Taiwan for bfst some years ago. But the recipe was far less interesting, just rice and maybe some stock as far as I could tell. Tasted like “cream of rice”. They said it was favorite dish when you were sick…

Post-surgery, I could use the warmth and calories of this dish.

Yes, I can understand. Hope you are feeling better.

Congee and the Thai version, kao tom, are great canvasses for whatever you want to add. My favorites are garlic oil (oil and minced garlic warmed until the garlic loses its raw aroma), shredded ginger, ground pork, whatever tender veggies are around, and otherwise repulsive 1000-year-old eggs. Wonderful, comforting stuff.

I understand that those preserved eggs can be repulsive to the non-initiated. However, they are great in congee.

Agreed (and I like them outside of congee as well). Your recipe sounds terrific, Victor. Hope your road to recovery is all express lane.

Absolutely a nice salty, pungent kick for congee. How else do you eat them, David?

Hey Peter,

In taiwan the idea of congee is very very different from that served in Hong Kong. Hong Kong “juk” is flavored with meats, seasoning, broths and is a meal in itself. Typically for Taiwanese, congee (not juk) is just like a bowl of rice, it’s to add to the meal. So it tends to be very uninteresting.

I LOVE congee…love any style… flavored, non flavored, mmmm

Thanks, Charlie, didn’t know that newhere !

My first taste of congee was at the Conrad in Singapore (SIN). I figure if it was good at a hotel, it must taste even better in the real world. Voctor, when will you be preparing a homemade batch? And the big question, what type of wine goes with congee?

During my time in Beijing, it was not unusual to have the egggs cut into qurters or eighths and served as a side dish (particularly in baquests for westerners to test their mettle). I also remember a nice dish of firm tofu, century eggs, garlic, shredded ginger and scallions

I made some for the first time from scratch at home, today. Perfect results. No wine pairing.

Cantonese juk >>> Taiwanese shi-fan…as I always point out to my Taiwanese wife.

I like the Cantonese, Fujianese and Thai versions. Not that keen on Japanese, and have not tried others.

One of my favourites is Cantonese style with roasted (crispy) pig intestines.

I was in the Peace Corps in Thailand a long time ago, where long-distance travel was invariably by overnight bus. On every trip, we would be woken at a pre-dawn stop to have a reviving breakfast of congee. It was great, nourishing, nutritious, tasty, and I’ve loved it ever since.

LOVE the stuff! It’s what I crave when I’m under the weather. I grew up on the plain Taiwanese version, but we always sprinkled pork sung (Dried, flavored finely flaked pork) on it. Sometimes, my mom would also grill some sweet Taiwanese pork sausage and slice them up for us to eat with it.

I like the other versions of it too. Sometimes, I make it with stock and other bits for flavor, but then don’t sprinkle on the pork sung. If I’ve been out late and anywhere near downtown, I’ll swing by Great NY Noodletown and pick some up for the morning after… [drinkers.gif]

1000 year-old eggs: LOVE them too. Only buy the ones that come from Taiwan (Chinese versions can contain lead). Chilled, sliced and put on top of chilled soft tofu. Sprinkle on some chopped scallions if you like, drizzle with oyster sauce. Great Summer starter.

My mom and thankfully my wife uses the turkey carcass from Thanksgiving to make the stock. After that you can add anything you please and it will taste fantastic. Just another reason I am thankful on Thanksgiving.

Not a fan.