Savory Taiwanese Congee 台式鹹粥

Congee or porridge? I was having a hard time naming it. To make it even more confusing, I found out there're also Korean version "jook" or "juk," which sounds more like the Taiwanese pronunciation for this recipe. Put the names aside, this is basically a porridge-like meal made with rice, pork strips, and veggies. Definitely comforting and nutritious. You can also serve with some canned food to eat along with. Besides lunch and dinner, some locals eat such food for breakfast. 

Savory Taiwanese congee 台式鹹粥 -

Ingredients (about 8 portions)?

• 3 1/2 rice measuring cups white rice
• 1 medium carrot
• 1/2 medium cabbage
• 12 green beans
• 1 stalk skinny celery 
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 5 cups water
• 2 tablespoons dried little shrimps
• 1 tablespoon crispy shallots (in oil)
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• Some salt

Pork and marinate:

• 300 grams pork strips (like thicker pork julienne)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Chinese rice cooking wine
• 1 teaspoon corn starch 

Shiitake mushroom preparation:

• 8 dried shiitake mushroom
• 2 cups water 

How?

Rinse rice grains and change water about 2 to 3 times, like what you'll usually do before cooking rice. Refill some water and soak for 30 minutes. Once ready, drain and set aside for later use.

Use two cups of cold water to soak the dried shiitake mushroom, about 30 minutes. Save the soaking water. Take out the softened shiitake, pat dry, remove tougher stems and slice the caps into strips.

If you can't find pork strips, slice the pork belly or sirloin into thick julienne pieces instead. Marinate the pork strips with 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon Chinese rice cooking wine, and 1 teaspoon corn starch. Give the meat some massage and let it marinate while prepping other ingredients.

Soak the dried shrimps with water, about 10 minutes. Once ready, dry well using a kitchen towel, then fine chop the shrimps.

Tear off the tougher ends and remove attached strings from the beans. Cut the beans into shorter sections. Finely chop crispy shallots in oil. If you can't fine the oiled version, simple crispy shallots will do, it'll boost up the aroma for the congee.

Peel and julienne the carrot. Tear of the leafy part of cabbage into medium sized pieces. We are not going to use the tougher stems, save that for other dishes or you can make a light-tasting stock afterwards.

Use a big pot, drizzle about 2 tablespoons of cooking oil and add in chopped dried shrimps and shiitake mushrooms. Turn to medium heat, cook till the mixture starts to bubble. Add in crispy shallots along with 1 teaspoon of salt. Give it a quick mix.

Add in pork strips along with its marinade. Turn to medium high heat, cook about 30 seconds. 

Transfer carrot and beans over. Continue to cook for about 1 minute.

Add in cabbage. It'll almost fill the entire pot. 

Don't worry. Let the heat do the work. Just be patience and wait till cabbage leaves start to wilt.

Pour in soaked rice. Also pour in the shiitake soaking water, about 2 cups. On top of that, add 3 cups of chicken stock and 5 cups of water. The stock to water mixture varies, but try not to use all stock since it can be too heavy for the congee. Preferably more water to stock ratio for this recipe. To recap, we used a total of 10 cups of liquid here: 2 shiitake water, 3 chicken stock, and 5 plain water.

Bring to a boil then lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for about 15 to 18 minutes, or till the congee reaches your preferred consistency. It only took 15 minutes for me. Make sure to mix these ingredients once a while. You can also add in extra stock or water if a watery, soupy consistency is desired. Taste and adjust with additional salt if needed.

Scoop the congee to serving bowls and garnish with some chopped celery. You can serve the congee with canned food, like spicy ground pork and Korean crispy seaweed I have here.

Since we're using uncooked rice grains, one might think that it can take quite some time for the grains to turn into congee-like consistency. At least that's what I thought in the beginning. Especially when using rice cooker, it can easily take longer than 40 minutes till the machine beeps. To the contrary, it only took 15 minutes for my big pot of congee after I added in the grains. 

Besides leftover cabbage stems, I also ended up with a handful of celery. I have to buy a full bundle of celery at the grocery store. One thing that traditional market still wins me over sometimes is because that the vendors there are more flexible. If you only need like 2 red chilies or a tiny chunk of ginger, they won't mind selling such petite portion, sometimes they'll just toss that to your bag without any extra charges. It'll be nice if I can only get that one little string of celery, cilantro, or scallion for garnish when I go shopping.

So I ended up finely chop all the leftover ingredients and made a big heavily seasoned stir-fry dish. That's the easy way to go, which I can also serve as toppings for dry noodles. These leftover veggies can be gone in no time. Housewife's wisdom, I called.

One little side note here, if you're going to store the congee for later meal. When reheating the congee, make sure to add more light stock or water when doing so. The grains will continue to absorb the stock even when stored in the fridge. It won't dry out, but the consistency will get thicker over time. Simply adding extra stock or water will do the trick.

Other rice recipes:

• Tomato eggs and ground pork rice 番茄蛋蓋飯
• Bitter tea oil fried rice 苦茶油炒飯

Taiwanese Recipe: Oysters with Salted Black Beans 豆鼓鮮蚵

A pat on my back. I don't usually cook oysters, but when I do, it can be a rice-kicking and umami burst dish. 

Taiwanese recipe: oysters with salted black beans 豆鼓鮮蚵 -

Ingredients?

• 1 pack/300 grams/about 20 oysters
• 1 stalk garlic sprouts 蒜苗
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 red chilies
• 1 tablespoon salted black beans (oiled variety, but traditional recipe calls for dried ones)
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce paste 醬油膏
• 1 tablespoon Chinese rice cooking wine 米酒
• 1 small pinch black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• Some sweet potato starch

How?

I double-checked with my mom before making this recipe, so it's been Asian mom approved. My family's way of preparing the oysters with salted black beans can be slightly different than other recipes, but the result was truly amazing. Test it out and you'll know.

Destem and finely chop the garlic sprouts. Finely chop the cilantro. Destem and finely chop the red chilies. Peel and finely chop the garlic cloves. Save about 1 tablespoon of the white section of the chopped garlic sprouts, 2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro, and few chopped chilies aside for garnish later.

Transfer the oysters to a colander and gently rinse them under running water. Once ready, drain and set aside.

Prepare a plat or a bowl filled with sweet potato starch. Coat each oyster with the starch, one by one.

Bring a medium pot of water to a gentle boil, quickly add in the oysters. Cook till the oysters seemed to set a little bit, like the coated starch slightly firmed up. It should take no longer than a minute, perhaps 30 seconds will do. Drain and set aside. 

If your colander can fit inside that pot, you can simply transfer uncooked oysters to the colander, then set the whole thing in the pot during the gentle boiling process. Just take out the colander when the oysters are ready, and let them continue to drain on top of a bowl or plate with some depth.

Use a wok, or a non-stick pan, drizzle about 2 tablespoons of oil and turn to medium high heat.

Once warmed up, add in remaining garlic sprouts, garlic, and red chilies. Give it a quick stir till aromatic, but not burning the garlic bits.

Add in drained oysters. Let it cook for a quick moment. The oysters will start to release some of the moisture, so there is no need to pour in extra water here.

Add in 1 tablespoon of soy sauce paste, 1 tablespoon of Chinese rice cooking wine, 1 tablespoon of salted black beans, 1/4 teaspoon of sugar, and a small pinch of black pepper. Mix and let it continue to cook for about 30 seconds. 

Plate and garnish with chopped garlic sprouts, cilantro, and chilies saved earlier on top. This dish is best to serve with rice, just scoop a big spoonful over and you're about to experience what it's been called a "umami burst."

The presentation might appear slightly different than the ones you found at a Taiwanese restaurant, but I assure you that the taste is the same, actually much better per my opinion. At a restaurant, they won't sprinkle as much as aromatics on top compared to my version, and not everyone uses sweet potato starch for the oysters, corn starch is a more common way to proceed.

Some recipes call for ginger, not mine. Also, as you can see, I swapped out dried salted black beans with oily kind here. Not the most traditional way to do, but you'll fall for that salty and sweet, yet moist aroma from these fermented black beans.

I would imagine this dish gone in a few big scoops, but just in case, please devour it right away. This is not meant for next-meal or bento food. After reheating the oysters, they'll shrink and the entire dish turn watery, and lost that compacted umami charm.

Other recipe using salted black beans:

• Dried anchovies and dried radish stir-fry 炒小魚蘿蔔乾