Easy Cooling Drinks And Comfort Food Prep (Part 2)

5.  MEAT CONGEE

I could use the same chicken stock as the ‘white’ bee hoon to cook this (Knorr stock cubes) but when I or someone else in the family fall ill, I prefer to rely on the homemade garlic-rich chicken stock  I have on hand to cook congee – I could be just imagining it – but I feel better after consuming congee made from it 🙂

Homemade chicken stock cubes always ready on hand for ’emergencies’

The congee is also a great breakfast food for children who are sitting for exams. It is comforting and satisfying to eat a small bowl of warm chicken or pork congee in the morning. A great morale booster!

What is more, if you, the main cook in the family, fall ill, you just need to cook one dish which you, as well as the rest of the family, can partake.

Honestly, I only eat congee when I am sick but after experimenting with different ways to confirm a surefire way to prepare it, I may think about whipping it up on any other ordinary day 🙂

The surefire way I cook it is inspired by these two recipes:  Ginger Chicken Jook (to cook the porridge) and Beef Mince Congee (to marinate the meat if I am making meat congee)

I now understand why many like to eat congee frequently. It is calming…comforting..nourishing…

Using the slow cooker or rice cooker to cook, the quantity of stock is 7 cups to 1 cup of rice or 3 cups of stock to half a cup of rice (I modified the quantity of liquid from the Ginger Chicken Jook recipe because cooking in a covered pot means one needs LESS liquid to cook)

Prepping all the ingredients (you can thaw out your frozen stock cubes or make from Knorr stock cubes – 1 stock cube to 500 ml of water)

Before starting to cook the congee, marinate the 150g of minced  meat accordingly (I used the recipe from the Beef Mince Congee for this)

…..and while you are at it, prepare an extra serving  of marinated meat to freeze so that when there is an emergency ( like when you are sick or you just need something hydrating and comforting) you have  the meat on standby and can just throw everything in a jiffy into the rice cooker or slow cooker and wa la! you have a ready nourishing meal with very little effort.

That is a very de-stressing thought!

So..after you have the rice, the stock, the minced ginger, the marinated meat, just place everything into the rice cooker (press ‘congee’ once to cook) or the slow cooker (High to cook within 3-4 hours OR Low to cook overnight or 6-8 hours)

For those of you who have been following my blog, we managed to convert everyone in the family to eat brown rice…we now eat unpolished brown rice – an affordable staple …and in this case used to make delicious brown rice congee ..one can hardly tell the difference between the taste of white and brown rice congee!