Jook, essentially a rice broth or porridge, to me is the equivalent to how I imagine most people feel about Chicken Noodle soup. It's what I want when I'm not feeling well. It settles the stomach and it's just a really nice comfort thing. Plus it's associated with all kinds of memories growing up when my Mom would make it for me and/or the family. One instance in particular stands out...when I got my wisdom teeth out and couldn't really eat much and my stomach felt all gross after the 'surgery.' (Does it count as a surgery if they put you out for it?) My mom made a pot of this when we got home and kept it on the stove for me for whenever I felt like I could keep something down. *Sigh* reminiscing...
But for the longest time I really had no idea how on earth to make it. I did try on a couple of occasions, but it always ended up a pretty ridiculously goopy mess usually with a thick layer of it stuck to the bottom of the pan. Definitely not what you want and nothing quite like what I remembered from when my mom made it. It wasn't until I tried doing the ratios from this blog that I got consistent results that actually tasted great.
So this is a basic variation of Appetite for China's vegetarian variation (she also has a chicken one) that originally came from the New York Times. I call it a starter because from this point you could add pretty much anything to personalize it to your taste. I usually add stripped up pieces of ham or something, though you could add pretty much any meat and anything else you might like to throw in there. I don't make as large of a batch as she does, mainly because we wouldn't be able to eat that much (serves 6-8 people) and I don't currently have a pot anywhere near large enough to make a batch that large. Now if only I could find the dried crumbled fish that my mom also used to have...think bacon bits, but with fish...sounds weird but it's fantastic on this!
But for the longest time I really had no idea how on earth to make it. I did try on a couple of occasions, but it always ended up a pretty ridiculously goopy mess usually with a thick layer of it stuck to the bottom of the pan. Definitely not what you want and nothing quite like what I remembered from when my mom made it. It wasn't until I tried doing the ratios from this blog that I got consistent results that actually tasted great.
So this is a basic variation of Appetite for China's vegetarian variation (she also has a chicken one) that originally came from the New York Times. I call it a starter because from this point you could add pretty much anything to personalize it to your taste. I usually add stripped up pieces of ham or something, though you could add pretty much any meat and anything else you might like to throw in there. I don't make as large of a batch as she does, mainly because we wouldn't be able to eat that much (serves 6-8 people) and I don't currently have a pot anywhere near large enough to make a batch that large. Now if only I could find the dried crumbled fish that my mom also used to have...think bacon bits, but with fish...sounds weird but it's fantastic on this!
INGREDIENTS:
- 1/2 cup rice, uncooked
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 3-4 cups water
- 1 Tbsp grated ginger
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Dash of white pepper
- 1/4 tsp sesame oil
- Green onion for garnish
PREPARATION:
- Combine rice, stock, and water, bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer for an hour and a half stirring on occasion and adding more water as necessary to keep essentially same ratio as when you started.
- Add all remaining ingredients, except garnish, at some point during the simmering process depending on how strong you want the other flavors incorporated. I sometimes add it in right after reducing the heat to simmer. Sometimes not until later, in kind of just depends on whenever I get everything else all ready to go.
- When consistency of rice is as desired (sometimes you want the rice a little more formed and sometimes I like completely broken down-I guess this makes more sense if you're familiar with jook and you've made it before...) serve hot, throw green onions on top and enjoy!
