My Basic Jook Recipe
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There are plenty of recipes out there for rice porridge, commonly known as congee, or what my Cantonese family calls jook. I am mostly recording this basic jook recipe down for myself, because I know how I like to make it but I sometimes forget things like: How much was the right amount for our 2-person household? How much water did I start off with? How far in advance of dinner do I need to start it, again…? Getting old sucks, and one of the worst things about it for me so far has been forgetting all the simple little things that used to be so easy for me to recall.
To me, a good basic jook has a silky feel to it. Something that goes down easy without a lot of chewing but isn’t a completely homogenous puree either. Some people like theirs as more like a soupy water with cooked rice floating in it, but that’s not for me. I also like making sure that there is a pleasant mild flavor to it when eating it all on its own, even though a variety of toppings is an absolute must for eating jook in my household. Pickled vegetables, white pepper, and soy sauce where the most common toppings from my childhood. But instead of those, I really went all-out in the photo above to lure you in— And it worked, right?
The jook in the photo features red braised pork belly that I made using Omnivore’s Cookbook/Maggie Zhu’s recipe here. There’s also a poached egg, radish shoots, pea shoots, chopped scallions, crushed chicharrones, and some slices of red Fresno chili. I also served it with a side of you char kueh/youtiao/Chinese donut, which I buy at the Asian supermarket and always keep stashed in my freezer. The best part of eating jook is tossing in a few slices of the fried dough, letting them get soggy, and then eating a big scoop of the soggy donut and jook all at once.
How I Make Basic Jook/Congee
(Makes 2 dinner portions)
Ingredients
1/2 cup jasmine rice
2 cups bone broth
2-4 cups water
2 inches ginger, peeled
2 tbsp shaoxing wine
2 tbsp fish sauce
salt
Procedure
Combine rice, bone broth, and 2 cups of water in a large pot and turn heat on high. Finely grate ginger directly into the pot so it catches all the juice. Add shaoxing wine and fish sauce. Stir everything together.
Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom. If jook looks too dry, add water 1/2 cup at a time along the way. Continue simmering until jook reaches desired consistency. Season to taste.
Serve with yummy accompaniments.
Need a faster recipe? Check out my shortcut Chicken Jook with Ginger-Scallion Oil recipe, using storebought cooked rice and rotisserie chicken (sponsored recipe).