The Start-over Congee and "Huneng"

It heals, you know

This is a great one to start with. When my taste buds have had enough adventures, I often come back to this one. 

The last seven days I indulged myself with deliveries and, additionally, an all-you-can-eat feast on my date with my girls yesterday (I probably would talk about it in my next post. It was their idea, after all :)). I was feeling so filled up since yesterday and finally feel like eating something right before dark. Walk out of my nest, and nobody has turned the lights on yet. I forgot my sandals, but it's okay.

Coming up with what to eat needs inspiration. There could be no connections between what I end up eating and what I'm inspired to eat, but what I end up eating is somehow affected by the inspiration, anyway. But today, I know exactly what I want. Nothing could be better than this at this time.

The Start-Over Congee

It's good to have something in mind. 

I remembered hearing the pressure cooker beeped earlier today, around lunchtime, so I check if there is any rice left, and there it goes. I paddled half of it out and put it in a saucepan, the other half would be good for fried rice. Save it for maybe tomorrow. Then I make the congee: 

Add water to about an inch over the rice, break down the big clots, and put it on the stove at median-high.

Voilà!

A thin slice of ginger would insert its soul. It would be great if there is chicken stock. Imagine that umami taste in every slurp of the soupy rice, it is better than chicken noodle soup. 

It doesn't matter hot or cold water you put, with a lid or without a lid you boil it, but it's going to be faster if you use hot water with a lid. Be careful though, stir it constantly to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom, and take off the lid immediately when it starts boiling vigorously, or it's going to spill.  

I used cold water, without a lid. (: I need time for something else.

Grandpa's stir-fried egg

My grandpa called it "Hu-neng". He barely cooked, and when he did he always made this. It was one of my childhood favorites. Because of it, he gained a higher reputation as a cook among the children, over Grandma, who cooked for us every day. 

Soy sauce and eggs. The magical combination.

Whisk them well, and fry it at median high heat. There is no certain amount of soy sauce you need to add, Grandpa never measured it, and I've never done so. The color after the whisking should be dark yellow to light brown. Fry it as if you are making overcooked scrambled eggs, even better with some browning. 

Pure warmth

The steaming congee might be impossible to bare, so you probably wanna start little by little form the surface. The ginger adds a subtle ginger flavor to it and stretches the warmth into the stomach. All other flavors come from add-ons, add whatever you wanted to. I had fermented tofu, chili oil pickled bamboo shoot and a tiny bit of wasabi as my sides.

The wasabi tasted just like wasabi, yellow mustard might be better??
Then they all would be yellowish. Hmmm..

It wouldn't take away the flavors of whatever you eat with, but the steam brings up the scent in everything. I don't need to word more about how delicious the Hu-neng is with the congee. If ginger inserts soul in congee, the egg is its soulmate. It might not bring you an exciting deli experience, but it makes your mind feel settled. That is what good food does. 

Would be ready for anything after this 😊