Comfort Food: Mushroom Congee

Sometimes, despite all our scheduling mastery, a travel day delivers setbacks, cancellations, snafus, missed connections, stressy rerouting, delayed luggage, or just really really really long flights home.  I gloat about having pretty good travel luck, but every now and then the karmic goddess who holds the scales of the universe (yes I’m a Libra) balance mine as well and I just have a really crap trip. 

On hour 42 (!) of a plagued odyssey home, working through the tail end of a bout of food poisoning and hemmed in by an alarmingly tall and awkwardly chatty seatmate, I started a mental list of comfort food to be easily assembled and enjoyed from the haven of my kitchen which I am NEVER LEAVING AGAIN.  Well, at least not until next time. 

Here’s my number one solution and boy did it do the trick.  More to come! 

The only time factor here is the simmering step, so I recommend making a big pot of the base soup and freezing individual servings for future comfort emergencies.  You can eat the base as is which is very nourishing and simple, or dress it up as described below.  Note: If your rice cooker has a congee setting you can make the base in there.  

INGREDIENTS

For the base:

• 1 cup long grain or basmati rice rinsed until the water runs clear
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 3 cups water
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1” knob of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced in half lengthwise
• one half boneless skinless chicken breast (you can also use precooked chicken breast and add toward the end of cooking)
• 1 large or two small brown mushrooms per person, trimmed and sliced thinly. You could go with wild or Japanese mushrooms but I prefer simple flavors for this one. 

Toppings:

• 1 egg per serving
• 1 tablespoon kimchee or pickled vegetables chopped into very fine slices
• 1 teaspoon kimchee or wasabi flavored sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon good quality soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon chili crunch
• 1 scallion per person, trimmed, cut lengthwise and then crosswise into small dice
• ½ cup fresh cilantro leaves removed from stems

TO PREPARE THE BASE

Cut the chicken breast crosswise and into very very small pieces.  The strands of meat will almost disappear in the soup.

Add rice, liquids, ginger, chicken and salt to a medium soup pot, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for at least an hour. Run a flat wooden spoon across the bottom  occasionally to ensure nothing sticks.  It should be soupy and somewhat thickened.  It will continue to thicken after you stop cooking.

Now you have a BIG pot of congee.  This is the fun part.

Set aside what you are not going to eat right now.  Add about 1 ½ cups of congee base per person to a saucepan, being careful not to include the hunk of ginger and bring to a simmer.  Thin with a cup or more of very hot water if it’s very thick.  Add mushrooms and simmer for about 5 minutes until softened.   Taste for salt as thinning can make it bland.

Meanwhile gently slide the egg into a small pan of simmering water for NO MORE than 2 minutes.  You want the yolk to be soft and runny.  Drain and keep warm.

TO SERVE

Place a serving of congee (not too hot!) in your very favorite and happiest bowl.  Make a little well and add the poached egg.  Give each topping its own little zone on top, placing the herbs last.  Mix and match the ingredients on your spoon with each bite for maximum mindful comforting yum.