Cooking: Century Egg and Pork Congee

You’ve all seen this congee plenty of times, and drunk plenty of it too — turns out making it isn’t that much hassle.

Method: soak the rice in water first, two hours at least, longer is better.

Then put the soaked rice in a pot and start boiling it with water at a 1:10 ratio.

Once the water comes to a boil the first time, chop up some of the century egg and add it in; save the rest for the end. After it boils again, turn it down to a low simmer.

How long you simmer depends on what you like. I like my congee completely broken down, so I go for an hour.

Then slice pork tenderloin or chicken into slivers, add Shaoxing wine, cornstarch, and white pepper, mix it all together, and wait for the moment to add it.

When the congee looks about done, add the meat slivers one at a time so they don’t stick together. Stir it in, then add the remaining century egg, chopped scallion, and shredded ginger. Give it a short simmer and it’s ready to serve.

Turned out pretty solid.

If the soup isn’t salty enough, you can add a little chicken bouillon at the end to taste.

Oh right — strictly speaking mine is a knockoff version, because what I put in was “biandan” (a cheaper alkaline-cured egg), not real century egg.