What do you put in your congee?

[Vajra Fist]

I've recently discovered congee as a breakfast food to boost spleen qi.

 

There's a tonne of different medicinal preparations for congee. I bought some astragalus root and goji berries for my first batch this morning.

 

What do you put in yours?

[Seatle185]

Mmmm goji berries would be good. If making it i like to add carrots, ginger, cinnamon sticks, or tumeric root. Its such a versatile meal!

[thelerner]

I'm more an oatmeal eater then conjee, but I like a fried egg on top.  Often I'll go savory with Mediterranean Herb mix, with rosemary, thyme, parsley etc.. put in at cooking time.

[Aetherous]

I like the idea of chicken soup congee. Just have the congee and use it instead of noodles to make a typical chicken soup. This is more effective than chicken soup with noodles when sick. Optional to cook the rice in chicken stock first, which adds a nourishing aspect to it.

 

Congee for breakfast food is challenging...I personally tend to need a lot of protein in every meal, and there's just not really a good way to do that with breakfast congee. I tend to think of congee more in a way similar to how ramen is done, but with rice instead of the noodles and not using broth...throw in various things, like some veggies, some meats, on top. Could add a sauce on top to give the congee flavor.

..and keep the rice pure; not cooked all together. Just how I like it. It's very enjoyable to get a taste of pure basmati rice congee, and not have that be tainted with other flavors cooked into it.

Since congee doesn't work for my breakfast, here is my breakfast of choice: sourdough foccacia, apple butter blended with stone ground mustard spread on the sliced foccacia, steamed spinach, a little cheddar, poached egg, sausage patty.

[Pavel Karavaev]

I like to cook congee together with chopped cabbage leaves, this is especially good if you use not just water but chicken broth (or Chinese chicken powder).
 

Edited December 30, 2017 by Pavel Karavaev

[Kara_mia]

On 12/29/2017 at 11:45 AM, Pavel Karavaev said:

I like to cook congee together with chopped cabbage leaves, this is especially good if you use not just water but chicken broth (or Chinese chicken powder).
 

Oh, yes, homemade chicken stock is the best.

[Taomeow]

Today my teacher was cooking the traditional dish eaten in China in the "New Year's month" (that's now, before the Chinese New Year) and treated me to a sample.  It is known as the Eight Treasures congee, and it had the following ingredients:

 

sweet rice, black beans, red beans, peanuts, jujube, goji, sesame seeds, and candied ginger (used to make water for the congee, then discarded, if I understood correctly).  There's a bunch of other versions too, but this one is what he made.  It hails from his home town of Penglai and used to be prepared in one central location in huge cauldrons and then distributed to all local restaurants which always served it this time of the year, and also given to people for free, to start generating kindness and benevolence in the new year.  Interestingly, salt was not added, I asked about it and he said that you are supposed to taste this as is, not changed with salt.  I liked it a lot, but me being me, if (or rather when) I make it myself, I'll do what I always do -- put a lot of butter in it.  Sorry tradition...  can't be 100% compliant 100% of the time.    But anyone who is not as much of a butter fiend as me (I put butter even in my coffee) is likely to find that it's wonderful as is.  

[C T]

 

 

One of my fav alt congee, common in Malaysian Chinese households -

 

 

 

[Ryan94]

On 2018/1/25 at 11:27 PM, Taomeow said:

black beans, red beans, peanuts, sesame seeds

 

I thought you didn't like legumes, nuts or seeds? You said there was too many bad proteins or something

[cmpunk50]

What is the preference here for everyone? White or brown rice? Is there a certain kind of rice superior for this?

[Marblehead]

I actually prefer brown rice but it seems I am eating white more often than brown.  If I cooked from scratch it would be brown most of the time.

 

[Gerard]

Welcome to the XXI century...and the Internet (endless supply of tasty, healthy and nutritious recipes thanks to kind humans).

 

Mixed grain Okayu

 

 

Bon appetit, qing man yong (請慢用), tabemasu (食べます), happy meal, lol.

 

Note: Prefer more the Chinese style? No worries:

 

Congee (Chinese rice porridge)

 

You can top it up with anything, jellyfish or sea cucumber if you like. I still remember having this amazing dinner in Taichung, Taiwan with some locals...and the sea cucumber soup. 11 years later I still remember how good it was, yum!

 

Edited August 1, 2018 by Gerard

[DSCB57]

On 6/27/2017 at 3:35 AM, Aetherous said:

Congee for breakfast food is challenging...I personally tend to need a lot of protein in every meal, and there's just not really a good way to do that with breakfast congee. I tend to think of congee more in a way similar to how ramen is done, but with rice instead of the noodles and not using broth...throw in various things, like some veggies, some meats, on top. Could add a sauce on top to give the congee flavor.

When we went to train with Nam Yang Pugilistic Association in Singapore, we would eat rice congee every morning, and it was prepared with fish - how is that lacking in protein or inadequate to your breakfast needs?

[Marblehead]

51 minutes ago, DSCB57 said:

When we went to train with Nam Yang Pugilistic Association in Singapore, we would eat rice congee every morning, and it was prepared with fish - how is that lacking in protein or inadequate to your breakfast needs?

That sounds very Korean.

 

[DSCB57]

2 hours ago, Marblehead said:

That sounds very Korean.

 

 

Possibly, but this was the only time I have eaten congee, so I was ignorant to any other variants, and in fact I would love to find somewhere here in Spain where I could eat an authentic vegetarian rice congee. I would also like a recipe so I could cook it myself. 

In Singapore we would eat it at 5am in the local open market near the school in Geylang, alongside the workers, (if memory serves me - it was back in '87, so I am not sure of the precise details), before returning to the school to begin training at 6am.

[Aetherous]

4 hours ago, DSCB57 said:

When we went to train with Nam Yang Pugilistic Association in Singapore, we would eat rice congee every morning, and it was prepared with fish - how is that lacking in protein or inadequate to your breakfast needs?

 

Fish congee is great. I've had good and disgustingly slimey...I'd need to learn how to make it so that it turned out okay.

Edited September 1, 2018 by Aetherous

[DSCB57]

On 01/08/2018 at 6:15 AM, Gerard said:

Welcome to the XXI century...and the Internet (endless supply of tasty, healthy and nutritious recipes thanks to kind humans).

 

Mixed grain Okayu

 

 

Bon appetit, qing man yong (請慢用), tabemasu (食べます), happy meal, lol.

 

Note: Prefer more the Chinese style? No worries:

 

Congee (Chinese rice porridge)

 

You can top it up with anything, jellyfish or sea cucumber if you like. I still remember having this amazing dinner in Taichung, Taiwan with some locals...and the sea cucumber soup. 11 years later I still remember how good it was, yum!

 

Thank you for those links Gerard! I am going to try some of those recipes.

[Gerard]

No worries. Enjoy!

[Pavel Karavaev]

On 26.01.2018 at 2:27 AM, Taomeow said:

I liked it a lot, but me being me, if (or rather when) I make it myself, I'll do what I always do -- put a lot of butter in it.  Sorry tradition...  can't be 100% compliant 100% of the time.    But anyone who is not as much of a butter fiend as me (I put butter even in my coffee) is likely to find that it's wonderful as is.  

Yep.  As the Russian proverb says:  "butter never spoils the porridge". 

I also often use butter for Chinese porridge. If the oil is good, it can really make the porridge better. However, in some cases this may be superfluous.

[Aetherous]

Some congee recipes...I didn't look too closely at this website, just saw that it has numerous recipes.

 

https://www.unfamiliarchina.com/congee/?fbclid=IwAR1UBRg2_7Z_6KKbo4TqDoJrIf1HuiNi2f7yOW4fzhOivjKVOqV1FbDvlaE

[yuuichi]

For replenishing a kidney, heart and liver yin qi deficiency, or a blood qi deficiency, is congee better than porridge? If so, why? Porridge and congee seem to be basically the same to me.