Dong quai is a chinese herb that is said to be beneficial to health. It’s easy to google ‘dong quai’ and you can find ton of information about the properties of the herb and its positive effects on women’s and men’s health. Generally, it is said dong quai is beneficial for women’s menstrual health and men’s fertility. It also detoxifies the blood as a ‘blood mover’ in traditional chinese medicine (TCM) terminology. My mother used to boil dong quai herb pieces in chicken soup. She would add a piece of chicken thigh or drumstick skin removed and add pieces of dong quai, and boil everything in the slow cooker for hours. Add salt last before serving to balance out the bitterness of the herb. I like the smell of dong quai and the warm comforting soup. I have since adapted her version of cooking dong quai. I cook pieces of dong quai in chicken porridge. In this post, I use porridge and congee interchangeably. Generally congee is thickened porridge cantonese style. Normal porridge in my household is rice in water with the rice pieces still intact. Whereas in congee, the rice pieces are smashed up to create a consistent thickened broth. Here is how I cook dong quai as a heart warming meal.
Porridge
Using a rice cooker with a porridge or ‘congee’ function
Wash one cup of rice. Add some sesame oil and leave for awhile.
Boil water.
Add 3-4 pieces of garlic peeled to the rice cooker with the wash rice in sesame oil.
Add sliced ginger (optional)
Diced carrot (optional)
Pour boiled hot water until the rice cooker pot is 3/4 full or slightly more than half depending on how thick you like your congee/porridge. I find adding hot water to the rice cooker hastens the cooking of porridge. Normally we get home quite late from work and it takes at least an hour to cook congee until the consistency we like. If you use cold water, it will take at least 1 1/2 to 2 hours on my rice cooker.
Add dong quai pieces – nowadays I add 8-10 small pieces because I have a lot of them left over. Be careful because they will make the porridge taste bitter. If you don’t like the bitterness of the dong quai, add less like 2-3 pieces. Click on ‘congee’ function to cook.
Chicken
Always parboil the chicken thighs in boiling water for 5-6 minutes (my mother would say 10 minutes) to remove bone marrow and the grey-ish stuff! I do that while the rice cooker is set to ‘congee’ function. Just to save time. After the pot is boiling, remove water and rinse chicken briefly under tap water.
Add chicken pieces to the rice cooker. The chicken will turn out to be really tender in the porridge. Feel free to use chicken breast pieces too. My partner likes thighs. He says thighs are more tender! With chicken breast I normally remove the chicken halfway and shred the breasts into thin long pieces with a fork. This is to create a restaurant style feel to the congee 🙂
Additional ‘goodies’
I like to add goji berries to the porridge. I will use the hot water (from above) to soften the goji berries while the porridge is cooking. So add hot water to a handful of goji berries in a bowl. Leave for 40 minutes. Then drain the water and add the berries to the congee midway. You should also take the opportunity to give the porridge a stir. I sometimes add chopped square pieces of firm tofu to the congee or stir in an egg. My partner and I love to have our congee with fried ikan bilis which we bring over from Singapore. Recently I introduced him to preserved olive which you can get at the supermarket. On days we like to treat ourselves, I would crack open a salted egg to go with the congee. I have to warn you that eating too much preserved foods are generally not good for health. When the porridge is cooked to the consistency you like, which is usually after 1 hour, add salt to taste. I sometimes add salt even before that when the porridge is midway cooking. Most of the time when I am in a hurry to have dinner, I don’t wait until the rice cooker function turns green or shows it is ready. I just check on the porridge after an hour because I know it will be more or less done.
OK I don’t have a picture of the congee I made last night but I will take a picture next time! I hope you enjoy this fabulous recipe adaptation.
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