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Congee or chinese rice porridge or jook
It is just comfort food

Someone who visited my website once wrote me asking me about a recipe for a thick soup made from rice and minced pork. It took me a while to realise that he meant congee.

I guess I am so familiar with congee as a rice dish that it never occur to me that others might treat it as a thick soup. And why not. I have tried thick soups made from lentil and pumpkin that had similar texture and consistency to congee.

So, is congee a chinese soup?

It does not really matter, does it?

Congee is closely associated with one variation of chinese rice porridge developed by the cantonese.

It resembles a thick soup and is commonly known as jook / chook, which is porridge in the cantonese dialect.

Other types of rice porridge include the teochew economical porridge, the hokkien porridge and the teochew fish porridge.

All these are basically rice cooked in a lot of water.

Click here to learn how to cook chinese rice porridge

Congee came from the Indian language because the Indians have a similar rice dish called congi except, I think, it is sweet and grainer. The British went to India first and encountered congi. Then they arrive in China and met jook. Hence the English name "congee".

Congee culture

Congee is a very forgiving dish. It doesn't matter if you are a great cook or a rookie. It is a wonderful chinese food. Have it sweet or savoury, thick or thin, luxurious or simple. It is up to you.

It has a long history of use as dietary therapy. Some of the oldest chinese imperial records have mentions of congee as being a premier health food.

Its healing power is also already in the chinese collective memory. One day, I caught myself offering to buy some congee for a colleague when she wasn't feeling well. It is really the first thing that came to my mind. When we are sick, we eat congee. Period.

Congee used to be for the poor, it was served in times of drought and famine where food are hard to come by. It was also served during funerals because it is simple and plain, and suits times of grief and mourning.

Now, it has become a popular breakfast food for southern chinese. Whether it is plain rice porridge with fried dough "you tiao" or a huge bowl of cantonese jook with fresh seafood. It doesn't matter. We just like to start our day off with a nice hot bowl of congee for breakfast.

There are so many ways to eat congee. It is common to cook some plain congee and whipped a few small dishes to go with it. Or, it can be a one-meal porridge. Just "dump" all the ingredients together and splash some soy sauce, sesame seed oil and pepper.

What's so good about congee?

Many chinese mothers would make congee and add all kinds of wonderful and nourishing ingredients for their babies, young children, and family members who are sick or are elderly.

1. Great Baby Food

In Singapore, congee is one of the first semi-solid food babies eat after milk. Add ingredients like mashed carrots, white fish, finely chopped green leafy vegetables to increase the flavour and increase the nutritious value. I have yet to meet a baby that doesn't like baby porridge. However, do not attempt to feed your baby plain congee. They can tell that you are trying to wing it. (^_*)

2. Recuperating Food

People who are ill or are recovering from an illness usually have poor appetite. Taking nourishing congee should help to improve appetite and provide much needed nutrients.

3. Anti-Diarrhoea Food

If you have diarrhoea and vomiting, you should try taking some plain congee. It will hold down better, eases the diarrhoea and replenish lost fluids. I will always make some nice hot rice porridge when I have diarrhoea. Try brown rice congee. They seem especially good for diarrhoea.

So, how do we cook congee?

There are many ways to cook congee this topic deserves its own page. Learn how to cook chinese rice porridge. Once you master the basics of making rice porridge, try some of the congee recipes here.

Recipes

Beef porridge recipes with egg
2 simple beef and egg porridge recipes.

Beef and bean sprout porridge recipe

Beef and prawn porridge recipe

Chicken porridge

Fish porridge

Herbal congee

Pork congee

Pumpkin porridge

Seafood porridge

Vegetarian porridge

There are 4 common types of chinese rice porridge in Singapore

Teochew fish porridge

This is more like steamed rice in soup. The most stripped down version of this porridge is to pour hot water over cooked rice. But hot water is tasteless so unless you are in a big hurry and you are the only one having it, it is not advisable.

Good Teochew fish porridge is made with top-grade fragrant Thai rice and fresh fish soup, with slices of fresh fish, ginger and chopped spring onions, topped with a dash of pepper and sesame seed oil.

Teochew porridge and the Hokkien porridge

These 2 are the most common porridges made at home. They are plain, so most mothers would whip up a few side dishes like fried omelettes, steamed fish, sugared peanuts, spicy fried eggplants, stir-fried chinese spinach with garlic and etc. to go with it.

The difference between the Teochew and Hokkien plain porridge are the side dishes. I am not really able to differentiate but my granny, being a Teochew, can tell which is which.

Hokkien rice porridge is sometimes serve with sweet potato. The sweet potato is peeled and cut into smaller pieces and cooked with the porridge. To shorten the process, the sweet potato can be steamed first.

In the olden days, adding sweet potato to porridge was probably done to increase the nutrition of the porridge especially during a famine. Sweet potatoes also bulk up the thin porridge when rice is scarce.

Cantonese Jook

Last not certainly not least, the Cantonese congee. Rice is cooked till they literally disintegrate. There are thousands of recipes for Cantonese jook using different combination of ingredients...just like chinese soups.

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Congee or chinese rice porridge or jook It is just comfort food