This is the first recipe from Ottolenghi’s new cook book, Comfort. It is poached chicken congee. It is not a complicated dish, but may take sometime to assemble due to the many components. The recipe grabs me instinctively. It’s hard to explain why — until we delve into the very notion of “comfort.”
That’s tough to pinpoint what comfort is, by definition. In short, it’s a feel and it’s entirely personal. It’s very much tied up with our personal experience of home, family, culture, memory. Above all, human taste is random and idiosyncratic. In a basic level, what does “comfort” mean to you in one word?
I associate comfort food with the notion of nurture, convenience, nostalgia, indulgence, warmth, creativity… The list is long, feel free to fill in the blanks and let me know what’s comfort food to you. Let’s start a conversation on comfort and explore the “comfort” recipes.
For the poached chicken congee, start by poaching the chicken in a stockpot with water and other poaching ingredients: ginger, pepper, shallots, garlic and cilantro stems. Bring the poaching liquid to a boil, then lower the heat. Simmer until the chicken is barely done. To finish cooking: let the chicken poach in the residual heat. Set aside. Shred the chicken prior to stirring it into the hot congee. Poaching the chicken can be done ahead of time.
Congee is best to make fresh. My assist comes from a hi-tech induction rice cooker.For the most part, cooking congee is easy as pie. See the recipe below for the manual option of cooking the congee in chicken stock with shallots and ginger.
When it comes to toppings, the options are unlimited. You have a long list of ingredients to choose from: green onions, crispy fried onions, sesame seeds, cilantro leaves, bean sprouts, crushed white peppercorns, hot red chiles, crispy chili oil or lime. This is where the factor of convenience or creativity comes in. Take your idea of comfort to wherever you want it to go!
Poached Chicken Congee
Ingredients
- POACHED CHICKEN AND STOCK
- 1 small chicken (about 1.1kg)
- 50 grams ginger (unpeeled and lightly bashed)
- 15 whole black peppercorns
- 3 banana shallots peeled and halved lengthways (170g)
- 5 cloves of garlic (unpeeled and lightly bashed)
- 20 grams coriander stems (reserve the leaves for the topping)
- salt
- CONGEE
- 200 grams jasmine rice
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 2 banana shallots finely chopped (155g)
- 25 grams ginger (peeled and finely grated to get 1 tbsp)
- 3 garlic cloves (crushed)
- 1¾ litres chicken stock (see step 1)
- 30 millilitres fish sauce
- FOR THE TOPPINGS (ANY OR ALL OF THE FOLLOWING)
- 4 spring onions finely sliced (40g)
- 40 grams shop-bought crispy fried onions
- 25 grams toasted sesame seeds
- 20 grams coriander leaves (from the stems used above)
- 100 grams beansprouts
- 1 teaspoon crushed white peppercorns (don’t substitute ground white pepper here)
- 1 - 2 red chillies (thinly sliced)
- crispy chilli oil
- 1 lime cut into wedges, to serve
Instructions
Place the chicken in a medium stockpot or deep casserole dish, breast side up. Add 3–3½ litres of water: you want the chicken to be just covered. Add all the other poaching ingredients, along with 1 teaspoon of salt, and bring to a simmer on a medium-high heat. Once simmering, reduce the heat to low and cook gently for 1½ hours. Skim a few times, and don’t allow the stock to come to the boil at any point. To check when the chicken is done, tug gently at one of the drumsticks: it should start to detach. Turn off the heat, then, using a large slotted spoon, lift the chicken out of the stock and transfer it to a large rimmed plate. Set aside to cool.
Place the rice in a sieve and rinse really well until the water runs clear. Set aside to drain. Put the sesame oil into a large saucepan and place on a medium heat. Add the shallots and ginger and cook for 5 minutes, stirring a few times, until softened. Add the garlic and ¼ teaspoon of salt, cook for another 2 minutes, then add the rice. Stir and then strain 1.75 litres of the chicken stock over the rice (the vegetables can be discarded and the remaining stock can be used in other dishes or frozen). Cook on a medium heat for 30 minutes, uncovered and stirring regularly, until the rice is soft and starting to break down: it should have the consistency of oatmeal porridge. Add the fish sauce.
While the congee is cooking, tear the chicken off the bones into shreds.
To serve, divide the congee between four large soup bowls, then top with the shredded chicken and the rest of the toppings. Serve with a wedge of lime.
Notes
Adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi's Comfort
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