Butternut congee with a chile-oil slick
The bowl you want when you are a little bit sorry for yourself.
At a Glance
Story
Cold, day-old rice is the whole secret to a fast congee. Grains that have already been cooked once have burst their starch and firmed up in the fridge, so back in hot liquid they slump into creaminess far quicker than raw rice ever manages. Thirty minutes and you have a pot that tastes like it simmered all morning.
Ingredients
- 2 cups leftover cooked ricemedium or long grain, packed (cold from the fridge is best)
- 1 tbsp neutral oil
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 6 cups vegetable stock
- 4 cloves garlicpeeled and crushed
- 1 small butternut squashpeeled, seeded and cut in 1-inch pieces (about half a small one)
- 1 small piece kombuoptional, for a deeper savory backbone
- 2 scallionsfinely sliced
- chile oil or chile crispto serve
Method
Congee turns up under a dozen names across half of Asia, always the same idea: rice cooked so far past the point of no return that the grains give up and go silken. This one leans on butternut for a sweet, earthy gold and then a slick of chile oil to wake the whole mellow thing up.
- Put the rice, oil and salt in a large pot and stir, breaking up any clumps. Pour in the stock and add the garlic, squash and the kombu if you have it. Kombu is dried kelp, and it drops a quiet savory depth into the pot the way a Parmesan rind would into a soup.
- Bring to a boil over medium-high, then drop to low, cover and simmer 30 minutes.
- Uncover and stir. Nudge the heat to medium and simmer another 5 to 10 minutes, until the rice has broken right down.
- Off the heat, fish out any big pieces of kelp, or leave them, no one is watching. Stir hard with a wooden spoon to smash the rice and squash together. Some squash holds its shape, some dissolves and turns the pot gold. That is exactly right. Taste for salt.
- Serve in deep bowls under the scallions and a few reckless drops of chile oil.
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