Boat congee, with everything in the bowl

Ingredientsserves 4

Equipment

• A big pot for the base and a small pan of oil for the peanuts and the vermicelli. Without a small pan, use the wok with less oil and keep turning.
• Wide congee bowls. A soup plate does the job; what matters is enough boiling congee poured over to cook the fish.
• A knife sharp enough to cut the fish 2 mm thin

How the time splits

1. 3 hrThe dried squid and the pork rind soakhands off
2. 5 minRinse the rice and start the pothands on
3. 25 minThe base simmershands off
4. 30 minWhile the base finishes, the toppings: squid and rind, the beef, the fish, the peanuts and the vermicellihands on
5. 5 minAt a hard boil, poured bowl by bowlhands on

Method

1. Soak the dried squid in cold water for three hours until it bends, and the pork rind in warm water for about an hour until it is soft right through. The congee shop's squid is soaked in alkaline water, which makes it springy; soaked in plain water at home it stays a little tougher, so later you cut it lengthways, which gives it its bounce back.
2. Rinse the rice and mix it with half a teaspoon of salt and a few drops of oil. Bring 1.8 litres of water to the boil, add the rice and the peel, and boil hard for ten minutes, stirring twice so it does not catch. Then turn it to medium-low, set the lid half on, and simmer for about an hour until the grains burst and the congee goes creamy.
3. Make the toppings while the base cooks. Boil the squid and the pork rind separately for two or three minutes, squeeze them dry and cut them into strips. Mix the beef with the salt, sugar, cornflour and white pepper, then beat in three tablespoons of water a third at a time, stirring one way until it has all gone in. That is what lets the beef break apart in the congee instead of setting into one grey lump.
4. Slice the fish 2 mm thick across the grain and toss it with a few drops of oil. Thin is the whole point: the slices are cooked by the congee poured over them, and a thick one stays raw in the middle.
5. Heat the oil in the small pan and fry the peanuts over low heat until pale gold, then lift them out and let them cool, which is when they turn crisp. Bring the oil back up, drop in the vermicelli and lift it out the moment it puffs. Both go on the bowl last; put them on a few minutes early and they go soft.
6. Bring the congee back to a hard boil. Break the beef into the pot with chopsticks and boil it for a minute until no pink is left. Into the bottom of each bowl go the fish slices, the squid, the pork rind and a pinch of ginger threads, with a little white pepper.
7. Pour only when the congee is boiling in big bubbles: ladle it over, beef and all, until the fish is covered, and leave it a minute. This is where the dish goes wrong. Congee that is not boiling leaves the fish raw at the centre. The slices must be white all the way through; if any are still translucent, tip the bowl back into the pot for a moment's boil. Peanuts, vermicelli and spring onion on top, and eat at once.

Take care

• Fish, beef, squid (a mollusc), pork, peanuts. The fish is cooked by the boiling congee, so the congee must be at a hard boil and the slices thin; check they are white through before anyone eats. The beef is boiled in the pot until no pink is left, never put raw in the bowl. Set the bowls down steady before pouring, with children well back, and never leave the pan of frying oil.

The story

Boat congee comes from Liwan in Guangzhou, where small boats moored along the creeks put whatever the river and the market gave into a pot of boiling congee and sold it to people ashore and afloat. In a Hong Kong congee shop it became the bowl with the most in it, and so the one least often made at home: seven or eight small jobs before the pour. None of them is hard; the difficulty is doing them all on the same morning. In Australia a Chinese grocer has nearly everything the bowl needs, and all it asks for is a Sunday morning.

Same kind

Century egg and salted-pork congeeFish-slice congee, cooked in the pourScholar's congee, with the pork offal

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.