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Dried-fish, peanut and pork-rib congee

Dried-fish, peanut and pork-rib congee

柴魚花生粥
SimmeredCongeeWeekendKids like itGood reheatedEasyhands-on 30 min · start to finish 14 hr 5 min

“Congee wants its full time on the boil before the rice opens.”

Ingredientsserves 6

雜貨舖White rice· rinsed, mixed with ½ tsp salt and 1 tsp oil, and left twenty minutes1 cup (180 g)
百子櫃Peanut· raw, red skins on, soaked overnight150 g
百子櫃Whole dried fish· loosened with the back of a cleaver, torn into fingernail-sized pieces, large bones out, rinsed2 (about 40 g)
街市Pork spare ribs· spare ribs sawn into 3 cm pieces, blanched450 g
街市Fresh ginger2 slices
雜貨舖Cooking oil· for the rice1 tsp
雜貨舖Salt· ½ tsp for the rice, the rest only at the endto taste
街市Spring onion / scallion· chopped, at the bowl2

Equipment

  • A big pot, at least 5 litres. The rice should fill no more than a fifth of it, or it boils over; without one, halve the quantities.
  • A muslin soup bag, if you would rather not meet a fish bone; without one, tear the fish small and pick out the large bones.

How the time splits

  1. 12 hrThe peanuts soak overnighthands off
  2. 20 minOil and salt on the rice; blanch the ribs; loosen and tear the fishhands on
  3. 30 minThe rice at a rolling boil, lid offhands off
  4. 1 hr 10 minRibs, peanuts and fish in; half-covered, low heathands off
  5. 5 minTaste and salthands on

Method

  1. Put the peanuts in water the night before. This is the one place the bowl really goes wrong: peanuts that have not soaked long enough will not soften however long they cook, and the next morning there is no shortcut.
  2. Rinse the rice, mix it with the salt and oil and leave it twenty minutes. Blanch the ribs from cold water and rinse them. Knock the dried fish with the back of a cleaver to loosen it, tear it into pieces the size of a fingernail, pick out the large bones and rinse it; put it in a soup bag if you would rather not meet a bone.
  3. Bring 2.5 litres of water to the boil on high in the big pot, add the rice with the lid off, stir twice in the first ten minutes, and keep it at a rolling boil for thirty minutes.
  4. Add the ribs, peanuts, fish and ginger, turn it to medium-low with the lid half on, and simmer another hour and ten minutes, until the peanuts are soft and the rice has broken down completely. The half lid is what stops it boiling over; stir the bottom every twenty minutes.
  5. Salt only at the end, after tasting, since the fish carries some salt of its own. If it is too thick, loosen it with boiling water, never cold. Spring onion at the bowl.
  6. Cool any leftovers and refrigerate them; the next day bring them back to a full boil with a little boiling water, and finish them within two days. Congee thickens overnight, and that is normal.

Take care

  • Fish, pork, peanuts. The ribs can carry small pieces of bone. For children under five, the peanuts stay whole even when soft, so crush them or leave them out of the bowl.

The story

A congee shop's congee depends on what was fresh that morning; a home congee depends on what keeps. A dried fish, a bowl of raw peanuts, a few ribs: this bowl is exactly that, everything in it can sit in the cupboard, and a big pot on Saturday afternoon lasts until Monday. What many Hong Kong people remember is the smell of the dried fish filling the flat the moment it went into the pot. In Australia the hardest thing to find turns out to be the fish itself, which is why this page says where to buy it and what not to buy instead.

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.