Vegetarianism: Cantonese Congee

There are different types of congee or porridge. Some more watery (I think that is the hokkien or teo chew version?), some more sticky (the cantonese congee), some with added ingredients (e.g. mushrooms, vegetables, etc.), and so on. This post will be on the plain version of cantonese congee.

Usually, I prefer to use a slow cooker whenever I feel like having cantonese congee (so that I do not have to keep stirring). Depending on the amount you cook and the heat you set on your slow cooker, it may take around 2 hours to cook.

To ensure that the congee is sticky like those sold by the stalls, the ratio of water to rice is very crucial. Personally, I found the best ratio of water to rice is when the amount of water is 10 times the amount of rice used.

Ingredients:
1 cup short grain rice (or new long grain rice)
10 cups water
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp mushroom granules
Sesame oil
Coriander
Chinese cruller (油條)

Steps:

1. Wash 1 cup of short grain rice and then add 10 cups of water into slow cooker. 
2. Add 1 tsp pepper and 1 tsp mushroom granules. 
3. Commence cooking.
4. Add sesame oil, coriander and Chinese cruller (油條) before serving.

That is it really! Simple right? You can adjust the amount of seasonings (mushroom granules and pepper) to suit your palate. Also, you can adjust the amount of rice. Just remember that the amount of water is 10 times the amount of rice used. 

It is up to your personal preference whether to add sesame oil, coriander and Chinese cruller (油條) as finishing touch. You can opt to add other ingredients too at Step 4. For example, if you add century egg (皮蛋), you will end up with century egg congee (皮蛋粥).

Before I end this post, does making the plain congee in less than 15 minutes might sound impossible? Well, we are aware that porridge usually takes pretty long to cook. Here, I share a trick I learnt on YouTube[1]. It can shorten the cooking time by a lot. And the trick is is to freeze the washed rice in freezer compartment for at least an hour before cooking it.

You might question why freezing would cut short the cooking time. I think it has something to do with what we learnt in science: greater surface area = shorter cooking time. Well, the washed rice grains have water molecules in them. So when you freeze the rice grains, water expand as it freezes to become ice. Hence, an increase in surface area because the rice grains are broken into smaller bits.

Hope you find the trick useful! Bon appetit!

Reference:

1. YouTube - Trick to cooking porridge quickly