What's up everyone?
Today, we’re making Century Egg & Pork Congee,
the OG Cantonese rice porridge.
Sometimes congee takes hours to make,
but my dad’s got a special trick
to cut the time down to just about 30 minutes.
We’ll start this heart-warming classic
with my dad’s special technique to prepare the rice.
And thanks to Green Chef for sponsoring this video!
1 cup of rice, which is about 6 oz.
About 6 oz of rice.
Wash the rice.
Just like when we’re cooking rice,
we’re going to wash the rice 3 times,
making sure to pour out the starchy water
and using fresh water each time.
This starchy rice water is great for watering plants!
What kind of rice do you use?
I use Thai jasmine rice.
I like Thai jasmine rice because it comes out thicker.
It can get viscous.
Sushi rice is great for this too.
That kind of rice cooks up softer.
Let it soak.
Soaked rice is easier to cook.
A bit of salt.
About 1 tsp of salt
and about 1 tsp of oil.
Adding oil here makes the congee silkier later.
Give it a mix.
Put it aside.
We’ll let the rice soak a bit
and move on to an optional ingredient
that adds a ton of flavor:
dried scallops.
With dried scallops,
I usually break them apart with pliers first.
Just pry them apart.
We’ll break apart roughly 1 oz of dried scallops into bits,
using pliers to make it easier.
After breaking them apart,
they'll be easier to cook.
The flavor will release better.
If you don't like dried scallops, you can skip them.
After breaking them apart,
wash them with water.
We’ll wash the scallops 2 times,
in the same way as the rice,
draining the water each time.
Now, we’re ready to start cooking.
We’ll heat 8 cups of water on high, until it boils.
Remember, wait for the water to reach a boil, then add rice.
The dried scallops can go in now.
The water's nearly boiling.
See?
All right, the water is boiling.
We're going to put the rice in now.
Once the water boils,
we’ll carefully put our soaked rice in the pot.
Is it on high heat?
High heat, yes.
The rice needs to be thrown around with the boiling water.
Can you make it with previously cooked rice?
Yes!
Since it's already cooked, the starches are bunched up.
So you'll have to cook it longer to break up the rice grains.
It won't come out as good.
It's different from uncooked rice.
When you cook uncooked rice, they'll expand.
Put the lid on.
After it has come back to a boil,
turn the heat to medium and let it cook.
Give it one stir, and then leave it alone.
If you stir it again, it'll stick to the bottom of the pot.
Cook it on medium heat.
Leave a small gap.
Keep it at a boil like this.
Congee, or 粥 zuk in Cantonese,
is a super common Chinese comfort food,
but because it originates
from a time when people were poor
and made big pots of congee
to make their rice last longer,
it is generally considered bad luck
to eat it during Chinese New Year.
However, it’s not quite that simple,
so I asked my parents about it.
Are you not supposed to eat this for Chinese New Year?
We eat congee after the 13th day.
Two days before Lantern Festival.
It's not that it's bad,
it's a habit, as they say,
that back in our hometown,
we don't make congee before the 13th.
As Daddy says, on the 13th,
after the 13th day of the New Year,
if someone asks,
what are we eating today?
He says, "We're eating the 13th."
That means congee.
So you just say the number.
The 13th means congee.
While even my parents aren’t sure
of the significance of the 13th day,
others suggest that after twelve days of eating rich foods,
the 13th day is the appropriate time
to cleanse the body with a simple rice congee.
That’s not to say that it doesn’t have flavor,
because people love the savory pork
and century egg in this dish.
We’ll talk more about that
classic Chinese ingredient in a bit.
Next, my dad will show you
the best way to cut the pork for this dish.
Today, we're using 1/2 a lb of pork butt.
Cut like this.
First,
cut it into slices.
This is a beautiful cut of pork.
If you firm it up in the freezer first,
it'll be easier to cut.
We’re using half-thawed pork here
to make the cutting much easier.
After cutting the pork into slices,
we’ll halve some pieces that are too thick
by cutting them horizontally.
After slicing,
cut into strips.
Then we’ll lay down the slices
and cut them into strips.
I also wanted to make a special shoutout to thank all of our
wonderful Patreon supporters for helping bring this video to life.
If you enjoy our videos and are interested in supporting us directly,
head on over to patreon.com/madewithlau to learn more!
Then we’ll rotate and dice the strips.
After cutting them into strips,
line them up and dice them.
What pork substitute can we use?
You could use chicken or beef.
Chicken would be best.
Thigh meat is more tender.
Breast would be rougher.
If you don't want to chop it,
you can buy pre-chopped meat at the market.
Pre-chopped meat is fine.
If you don't want to chop it, just buy it pre-chopped.
Put it in a bowl when you're done chopping it.
Rinse it with some water.
Rinse out the red liquid.
Get rid of the gamey, bloody taste.
Let it drain.
As the pork rests,
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Next, we’ll cut up about a 1/4 oz of ginger
for the marinade.
First, we’ll cut it into slices.
Then we’ll lay down the slices
to cut it into strips.
Then we’ll rotate 90 degrees to dice it.
We’ll put the ginger into a bowl
and for the rest of the marinade,
we’ll add 1.5 tsp of salt,
1/4 tsp of white pepper, 2 tbsp of cornstarch,
2 tbsp of water,
and optionally a 1/2 tsp of baking soda
to get the pork really tender.
Then we’ll mix it all together.
We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com
along with step-by-step instructions and video clips
to guide you as you make the recipe at home.
Mix it all up,
and put the meat in.
Press some more water out first.
Some red liquid is still coming out.
Put it in.
Mix it well.
You could even mix it until it's paste-like.
Add some sesame oil, 1 tsp.
With this done,
it'll be ready to go into the cooked congee.
With our pork marinated,
we’ll get a clean cutting board
to prepare our garnishes.
We grow both the cilantro and green onions ourselves.
With those all chopped up,
my dad will show you how to prepare
the last and definitely not the least important ingredient in this dish,
the century egg.
3 century eggs.
We’ll peel the century eggs like regular hard-boiled eggs.
First, we’ll crack the outside shell on our cutting board.
Then we’ll carefully remove the shell off of the eggs.
For those unfamiliar with it,
century egg, or 皮蛋 pei daan in Cantonese,
is a centuries old Chinese ingredient
that is traditionally created by preserving duck eggs
in a special curing mixture,
including clay, ash, and salt,
amongst a variety of other elements.
Don’t be too worried about the name though,
because the curing process for century eggs
usually only takes months, or even weeks,
after which the egg white will have turned black
and the yolk will be dark green.
Despite its shocking appearance to the uninitiated,
century eggs are enjoyed by millions of people
for the intense flavor of the yolk
and the chewy texture of the egg white,
whether it’s eaten as an appetizer over some silken tofu
or as an ingredient in congee.
Cut it open.
This is a beautiful century egg.
With the first egg, we’ll cut it into wedges.
Put it here.
With the other two, we’ll cut them first into wedges,
then rotate to cut into smaller pieces.
With the eggs cut,
we’re ready to return to our congee
which has been cooking for 20 minutes.
I can smell the dried scallops,
they smell so good!
All right, now
the congee is ready.
The congee base.
It doesn't stick to the pot.
You might recognize this from our chicken congee recipe,
but my dad's about to share what I believe is a revolutionary trick
to drastically cut down the time it typically takes to make congee.
Turn the heat down to low.
We'll mix with this whisk.
Now that we're trying to reduce our energy usage,
if we whisk it, we don't have to keep cooking it so long.
Break it up.
When I was young,
my mom made congee just like this.
Once it came to a boil,
she'd hand me a whisk and have me mix it.
How much time does it save?
It saves lots of time!
At least half.
If you want to make beautiful congee, and you don't whisk it,
it'll take at least an hour.
It looks fantastic!
It's only been half an hour.
After a bit of whisking, it's gotten thicker.
This is an excellent congee base.
See that?
So this has thickened up a bit.
Add some boiling water.
My dad adds a bit more water here, about 4 oz,
but this depends on your preferred thickness of congee.
We like it a bit thinner than this
because it’s less likely to stick to the pot
and our other ingredients will already thicken it a bit.
Now that our congee is pretty much cooked,
my dad will show you how to properly add the pork.
Turn the heat as low as it'll go.
One small chunk of meat at a time.
Don't dump it all it at once.
Break them up.
This way, they'll be like little meatballs.
You don't want them to stick.
Drop them into the congee.
Low heat?
The lowest heat.
The congee is already done.
You'll get individual pieces of meat like this.
They won't fall apart.
All right, we've added all the meat.
Give it a stir.
They're like little balls.
Turn up the heat a bit.
Cook the meat.
The meat will thicken the congee too.
How long do you have to cook the meat?
It only takes 3 minutes.
They cook very quickly.
They're already cooked through.
After about 3 minutes,
or when the pork fully turns from pink to the lightest brown,
we can turn the heat to low and have a taste.
We just need a bit more salt.
1/2 a tsp.
This is too thick.
We need to add some boiling water.
How much are you adding?
About 1/2 a cup.
Altogether about 1/2 a cup of water.
What is the best water-to-rice ratio?
Look at ours as an example,
1 cup of rice is 6 oz,
put in 8 to 10 cups of water,
depends on what you like.
When I cooked it earlier,
it thickened up too much, so I added water.
You can add boiling water to it anytime.
You have to add boiling water, not cold water.
Must be boiling.
Adding boiling water makes sure it's the same temperature as the pot.
With our flavoring and consistency perfect,
we’ll finally add the small pieces of century egg.
Put in the smaller pieces.
We’ll gently mix the century egg into the congee
to ensure the small pieces don’t break apart.
Look, see how lovely the meat is.
Like meatballs.
All done!
Turn the heat off.
After 30 seconds, we’ll turn off the stove
and transfer the congee to a serving bowl.
Then we’ll top the congee with our century egg wedges
along with our cilantro and green onions.
Did you eat this growing up?
We ate lots of congee,
but not so much century egg congee.
We were able to get century eggs,
but it wasn't easy to get often, like you can now.
Hello!
Yeah!
Cool guy!
Yeah!
Our family recipe for Century Egg and Pork Congee is complete!
I hope you all enjoy it!
Hong Doy, time to eat congee!
Cheers!
Century Pork and Egg Congee!
Daddy, what's Hong Doy eating?
The 13th!
What's the 13th?
The 13th means congee!
Hong Doy, yay!
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