Name: Congee with Condiments (調味粥)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 3 sprigs of coriander (cilantro), leaves picked; 2 tablespoons hot water; 2 tablespoons pickled ginger; 2 tablespoons deep-fried shallots; 2 tablespoons deep-fried garlic; 2 tablespoons Tianjin preserved cabbage; ½ teaspoon white pepper; 1 litre (1¾ pints/4 cups) chicken stock; ½ a thumb-size piece of ginger; 1 spring onion (scallion); 175 g (6 oz/1 cup) rice; 1 teaspoon salt; 1½ tablespoons vegetable oil; 1 finely chopped spring onion (scallion); 3 litres (5¼ pints/12½ cups) water; 6 tablespoons light soy sauce; 2 century duck eggs (available in many Chinese supermarkets); 1 finely sliced seedless bird’s-eye chilli; 1 teaspoon sugar

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Hong Kong Diner

By Jeremy Pang

Published 2017

About

Every culture has its own cure-alls for flu, colds and other illnesses, alongside home remedies and treatments, for children especially. Whether they’re soups, or teas, or porridge, these foods all tend to bring comfort and strength as well as easy digestion – all necessary when battling illness. In Hong Kong, homemade congee may be the only thing that parents will allow their kids to eat when they are suffering any sort of stomach bug, but similarly there is also a huge congee-eating break