蘑菇粥

Mushroom Congee

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Cook time: Approx. 2 hours

A great dish for breakfast, lunch, and even dinner! Congee is warming, nourishing, and very easy to tailor to your own tastes.

Ingredients

Congee:

3 dried shiitakes
4 scallions, white and green parts separated
One ½-inch piece ginger (2 tsp chopped)
2 to 3 cloves garlic (1 tbsp chopped)
2 handfuls of fresh mushrooms, any variety
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 cup rice*
Neutral vegetable oil, for sauteeing
Mushroom seasoning to taste
Soy sauce to taste
Salt to taste
A handful goji berries

Topping:

A handful dried cordyceps mushrooms
1 onion
Neutral vegetable oil, for sauteeing

To serve:

Toasted sesame oil
Chopped scallions
Chopped cilantro
Chili oil

Substitutions and Notes:

* I use white short grain rice, but other kinds can work too: just cook until it thickens and add water as needed.

Variation:

You can swap the sweet potatoes for 2 to 3 jujubes, pitted and chopped roughly, for a different kind of subtle sweetness.

Instructions

Prep:

1. Place the dried mushrooms in a small bowl and pour hot water to cover.

Let them sit for 30 minutes to an hour.

2. When they feel fully softened, drain well and squeeze out the water. Remove the tough stems, chop into bite-sized pieces.

3. Slice the scallions and chop the garlic and ginger finely.

4. Chop the fresh mushrooms into bite-sized pieces.

5. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into roughly one-inch cubes.

6. Wash the rice well, drain it, and set it aside.

7. You can boil water in a kettle at this stage and have it ready.

Bloom the aromatics:

8. Place a pot large enough to hold the congee over medium heat. Add 1 to 2 tbsp vegetable oil.

9. Once the oil is hot, add the aromatics in stages. Scallion whites go first because they can take more heat.

10. Then add the ginger, followed by the garlic, stirring after each addition until you can smell the fragrance.

Add the mushrooms:

11. Add the fresh and dried mushrooms and stir well, until the fresh ones start to soften.

12. Then add the sweet potatoes. (If using jujubes instead, add them now.) You don’t want to brown them, just have them bathe in the aromatic oil.

Add water and simmer:

13. Pour 6 cups of hot water into the pot and bring it to a boil.

14. Add the rice to the pot and give it a stir. Bring it back to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cover with the lid.

15. Simmer the congee on low heat for about 45 minutes to an hour.

16. Check every 10 to 15 mins to give it a stir: it’s helpful to scrape the bottom so things don’t stick too much.

17. Add more water as needed — you may need another 1 to 2 cups as the rice expands.

Meanwhile, make the topping:

18. Chop an onion finely.

19. Pour 1 to 2 tbsp of oil into a small pan and saute the onions until they start to brown. Add the cordyceps and saute until it all looks delicious. Set it aside for serving.

Season:

20. Once the congee simmers for about an hour, the rice will start to fall apart and things will thicken up as you stir it.

21. Now mash some of the sweet potato on the sides of your pot with a spoon and stir.

22. Depending on how you like the consistency, you can add more water (to thin down) or simmer a bit longer (to thicken).

23. Season it with mushroom seasoning, soy sauce, and salt. Start small — say, a teaspoon at a time.

Keep stirring and tasting after each addition. Seasonings are where you really get to experiment!

24. Once you’re happy with the flavor, give it one more stir and turn off the heat. Add the goji berries to the pot, cover, and let it rest for a few minutes.

Serve:

25. Ladle the congee into individual bowls. Garnish with the caramelized onions and mushrooms, and any other toppings.

Enjoy while it’s hot!

https://dumplingadjacent.org/mushroom-congee

Recipe by Andrew Tsao

“The base of congee is rice and water. I start with 6 to 7 cups of water per cup of rice. Once you have that, the rest depends on you. You can experiment with more or less ginger or garlic, with the thickness or soupiness, with different kinds of rice, with all kinds of toppings.

Growing up in Taiwan, congee was a dish that kids ate when they were sick; it had associations of being bland. But I’ve realized it can feel really indulgent while still being light. My dad’s side is from northern China, and we really like soup, so that might explain my love of congee. I like to build the flavors in the pot, rather than relying on mix-ins or toppings. So I bloom lots of aromatics in stages, and balance the sweetness of the potatoes with the umami of mushrooms.

The topping is where you can get really creative — fried shallots, fried onions, cilantro, oils and sauces. I really like caramelized onions (which is probably a bit of a western touch) along with toasted sesame oil; a little sweet, a little nutty. And the cordyceps mushrooms bring their own earthiness. For me, this is a dish that’s really about spotlighting and honoring the mushrooms — different varieties have different flavors and personalities, so it can be fun to experiment.

Andrew Tsao (曹明鑫) is a Taiwanese American artist and coach who works with ink, abstraction, and people to give form to what is often felt but unseen—the mystical, the ancestral, the inner landscape. His work tends to the relationships between self, ancestry, and land, and on remembering desire and imagination as living seeds for building new worlds together.