Rice soup (Jook)
Ultimate comfort food, also known as jook or congee, rice soup is soul food. This is my Dad's Cantonese version. Made with rice, chicken stock, potatoes and garnished with lettuce, shredded chicken and, scallions.
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked long grain rice medium or short grain will work too
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 T vegetable oil
- 2-3 slices fresh ginger
- 1 quart chicken stock 1 quart water
- 1 quart wqter
- 1/8 cup rice wine
- 2 chicken legs (whole leg) skinned if desired
- 1 russet potato cut in large chunks
Meatballs
- 1/3 pound ground pork or mixture of pork and chicken 1:1 or ground chicken
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp rice wine
- 1 tbsp salted preserved turnip finely chopped (chung choy)
- 1 tbsp minced cilanto and green onions
- dash of salt and pepper
Garnishes:
- green onions, sliced
- cilantro
- lettuce, shredded preferably iceberg
Instructions
Da Soup
- Heat oil in a stockpot, saute ginger slices for about 30 seconds, add rice and salt and saute for a couple of minutes. Add stock, water, wine, and chicken legs. Bring to a boil then lower to a strong simmer. Do not stir. Let cook for approximately an hour and a half until the rice breaks down and the soup looks a little thick.
- At the 60 minute mark, remove chicken and set aside to cool. Add potatoes to jook. Give it a good stir, bring it back to a simmer to finish.
Da Meatballs: My favorite addition to jook is little meatballs made with pork that my father added just before serving.
- Add seasonings to the ground pork add 1 T chopped salted preserved turnip (chung choy).
- Drop rounded teaspoons of the pork mixture into the rice soup, and continue to cook until meatballs are cooked through, approximately 5-10 minutes.
- Shred chicken and serve alongside other garnishes.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro, green onions and shredded lettuce. Serve immediately.