Comfort food

My hubby is a true CBC (Canadian born chinese), he prefers burgers over fried rice, pizza over stir fries and hockey over ping pong (well, who doesn't?), but when it comes to comfort food, his #1 choice is actually congee. Congee is something all of us chinese kids grew up eating, it's basically a rice porridge, with various things added into it. It's the perfect thing to eat on a winter day, and the best thing to eat when you are sick. Congee is one of those things every chinese moms know how to make, but nobody really have a recipe for it. So when I got married, I decided to try to make it myself.

There is only two ingredients for the congee base, rice + water, all you really need to do is boil the rice in water until it reaches a porridge like consistency. Congee is not hard to make, but it's hard to make it well. And since hubby raves about his mom's congee, I really want to make it well, or at least somewhat comparable to his mom's version. After many failed attempts, I have finally mastered the art of congee, and hopefully Tyler will one day rave about his mommy's congee too!


Mommy Fi's Congee with shredded pork and thousand year old egg

1 cup of rice
1 tbsp of vegetable oil
2 tsp of salt
6 cups of water
1 large piece of pork shank (Chu Chin in chinese)
2 thousand year of egg (Chinese fermented eggs, can be found in asian grocery store, usually by the dry goods area)
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
Shredded preserved pork threads (optional)


1. Stir the rice, oil and salt together in a small bowl

2. Bring 6 cups of water to boil, then add the pork shank to boil for 30 minutes

3. Clean the eggs by removing the wood chips from the outside and cracking the shell, cut the eggs in small chunks, set aside
4. Add the rice/oil/salt mixture into the boiling pork water, simmer for another 30 minutes
5. Remove the pork shank, chop into small pieces
6. Continue to simmer the congee until the right consistency is reached, add water if the congee becomes too thick, should take another 15 - 20 minutes
7. Add the pork pieces, eggs and green onions into the congee and simmer for another 5 - 10 minutes
8. Season with more salt to taste
9. Serve hot with shredded preserved pork threads

The "secret" to making good congee is mixing the rice with oil and salt, it results in the perfect consistency, the rice is all dissolved, but still has a nice texture.  Add more water if the congee becomes too thick. Enjoy!