Congee...Comfort Food

A full on prairie blizzard roared into town today. Blowing snow, -18C... and to think it is March 17th! Old man winter is not ready to give in to spring.

Our teeny little super guy is sporting a super cute new haircut and trying to be patient 
while waiting for his supper today. 

The chill in the air and the fact that we were housebound lead us to cook a traditional Ling family comfort food, Congee.

The young kids enjoy this meal more than the oldest kid in our family as the texture of the mushy rice is somewhat of a harder sell if you were not brought up on this food. BaBa craves this kind of thick textured food on a cold day as it reminds him of his childhood. I enjoy my congee "thin"and add extra water to my portion. Feel free to add extra water once it is done cooking, thick or thin it is still a good hot meal on a cold day!

You can add almost anything to the base recipe and it will turn out.

Rice Congee

11/2 cups of white long grain rice (we love Jasmine rice)
12 cups of water

Add water and rice to a large stock pot and bring to a roaring boil for 30 minutes.
Turn down the heat and let it simmer.

Today during the end stage of cooking of the rice porridge we added:

• Broiled Basa Fish (Broil 1lb defrosted fish fillets for 15 minutes until mostly cooked...opaque white, light and flaky)

• Crimini mushrooms (2 cups chopped and sauted in 2 Tbsp oil)

• Mixed steamed vegetables (Broccoli, snap peas, grape tomatoes steamed for 3 minutes)

As there is no boullion added due to my gluten sensitivity. We use the following concoction to flavor the otherwise bland rice porridge:

2-3 Tbsp  light soy sauce (gluten free)
1/2 tsp of sesame oil
1 Tbsp Mirin Sauce
11/2 tsp Fish Sauce
(optional...for a bit of extra heat add a touch of Sambal Oelek chili paste)

I choose to precook the addtitions so that the vegetables are a bit crispy and the fish isn't "fishy". When I use chicken it gets tossed in the stock pot with the water and the rice at the beginning of the cooking process. (No one in my house will eat overcooked vegetables so I ALWAYS steam them separately!)

Rice congee with mushrooms and fish.

Everyone adds their own portion of vegetables to the soup/porridge. 

These two are killing me...they "fight" over who should pray for the meal! We usually settle it by asking them both to say grace with one of the adults leading. They are just too competitive for their own good!

Gung Hay Fat Choi! Happy Chinese New Year 2012

Grace Lin's Book "Bringing in the New Year" is a great way to prepare children for the big day.

Just like in the story we cleaned the house and swept out the bad luck. Then hung our version of spring poems on the wall along with our paper dragons. 

She really didn't want to pose for the photo's as she was too hot in her quilted vest...so I resorted to letting her hold the porcelain fish and having a treat. She managed to plow through a small box of Pocky treats and before long was on a sugar high but at least I got a couple of reasonable smiles from her!

We made a special trip to the hospital in the afternoon to see BaBa working in the ER and brought him a special treat... steamed pork buns!

Su Yee and I spent the rest of the day preparing special foods for the celebration. Nie Nie Jan's steamed whole fish,  Chinese broccoli and bok choy, hot and sour soup, lotus chips, steamed rice packets with red bean paste. 

We all put on our special clothes for our family dinner celebration. 

Su Yee even tried eating with Chopsticks. The lotus root chips (see recipe below) were not only tasty but also easy to "catch" with her sticks. 

Su Yee was so excited today... and I think she was a little scared that a dragon would actually show up to our house as it does in her storybook! I love how concrete she is in her thinking! We ended the night by making dragons and lions out of playdough. Can you guess which one MaMa made versus which one BaBa made?  BaBa's purple creation was supposed to be a lion to scare away any bad spirits that might be lingering...it certainly could scare something off! 

We wish everyone a healthy, happy and prosperous year in 2012! 

RECIPE: Lotus Root Chips 

If you have never tried lotus root at all frying lightly into "chips" might be an easy to introduce them. They are a favorite treat in our house!

Ingredients

2 cups of cold water for soaking the lotus root

4 tablespoons clear rice vinegar or cider vinegar

2 cups water for parboiling

3 lotus root sections

Cooking oil for frying 

Salt and black pepper

Directions

1. Peel and wash the lotus root thoroughly and remove the ends/ joint between sections.
2. Slice the roots in cross section thinly. It is easier if you use a mandoline
3. Pour the cold water and vinegar together into a big bowl
4. Place the sliced lotus root into the bowl to soak for a while. DRAIN
5. Heat the fresh water and add lotus root. 
6. Parboil the lotus root for 15 minutes. DRAIN the water and pat dry in a kitchen towel to remove some of the water and moisture. 
7. Heat 1-3 tbps of cooking oil in a wok or very large flat bottomed skillet.
8. Carefully lay the lotus root pieces in the hot oil. Don't overlap any pieces.
9. Fry the lotus root until golden brown. (Flip to brown both sides)
10. Remove and drain away excessive oil
11. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper to taste