chinese congee

i managed to get myself sick over labor day weekend which was great planning. i mean, as if i had better things to do with my 4 days off than sit at home and watch movies...right. i don't know what it was. must've been a combination of traveling, work being crazy, and the seasons changing. anywho, whenever i was sick as a kid, my mom would make congee for me and it always made me feel better. i decided it was probably time for me to learn how to make it myself seeing as mama bee lives five hours south. congee is also known as rice porridge so essentially a thick soup made with rice that is often combined with other ingredients.

after talking to my mom about four times within a span of half an hour, i got the main gist of it. cook a LOT of water with a little rice. right. so it's what i did, but i got a little creative. i sliced up fresh ginger and added it in the pot as the rice was simmering to make it extra tasty. meanwhile, i dug up a chicken breast and tilapia and marinated it with some sesame oil, soy sauce, hoisin sauce (just a teeeeny bit since i didn't have oyster sauce), salt and pepper. to get congee the perfect consistency for me, i had to cook it for about 50 minutes on the stove on medium before i added in the meat. the meat only needed a few minutes to cook since i diced it up into small pieces. then i chopped up some green onion to garnish the congee with. it was delicious! not gonna lie, i'm fairly proud of myself--i even called my mom to let her know how it turned out :)