Comfort food: Congee 粥

(serves 4-6)

When i'm sick, plain white congee or "jook" is my go-to food. It's a HK style rice porridge that you can eat for any meal of the day (or every meal when you're sick). It's a staple that is essentially just rice boiled down with water (and some stock if you want it to be tasty!), and can be as thick or thin as you like. Traditionally we have ours quite thick, so add more water if you like yours a bit runnier. 

There are whole restaurants dedicated to congee in HK, with heap of variations that you can add in, common favourites are Thousand Year Old Egg & Shredded Pork (Pei dan sou yuk), Mince Beef & Vermicelli, Chicken, Mix Seafood etc and a large array of condiments that you can have on the side. In our house, we grew up with having preserved cucumber, shallots and dried pork floss. Yum. 

Prep time: 10-15 min (soaking)
Cooking time: 45-50 min

Ingredients:
1 1/2 C rice
2.5 - 3.0L water
1x400mL can of chicken stock

Some condiment options:
Preserved cucumber
Dried pork floss
2 shallots, finely chopped
White pepper

Method:
1. Wash and soak rice in 1/2 C water in a large pot with 2-3 tsp salt for 10-15 minutes.
2. Boil a kettle of water (approx 1.5L) and add to the pot and cook on high for approx 15 minutes, stirring regularly until the rice is broken.

3. Add the chicken stock and another kettle of water (1.5 - 2.0L) and bring to the boil. Keep on high heat for another 10-15 minutes, then lower heat to medium and cook for another 15-20 minutes until it's the right consistency. 
4. Serve piping hot with condiments on the side!