Text 10490, 96 rader
Skriven 2008-07-13 10:08:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av CAROL SHENKENBERGER
Ärende: Re: dogging it 594
==========================
-=> Quoting Carol Shenkenberger to Michael Loo <=-

 CS> Lately my problem has been battling mold.
                                              
I never have that problem in my arid climate. I don't even need a
dehydrator to air dry chilies or herbs.

I recently saved an interesting post on congee....

From: Simon Bao

Anyone who is already familiar with rice congee, or jook, or juk is
already familiar with Vietnamese Chao.  Sounds exactly like the
English "chow."  Andrea Nguyen describes it as a "Creamy Rice Soup."
It is a simple, "fundamental" kind of dish, easy to grasp,
relatively easy to make, but it defies a direct translation into
English because it varies in quality so much.  From miserably to
heavenly.

There are versions that are very accurately called Gruel.  At its
worst, or simplest, it's just water and rice, a bit of salt in some
form or other, with the rice cooked to the point that the grains are
dissolving into a thin viscous gruel.  Evokes images of "Feeding
Stations" in refugee camps.

There are other versions more accurately called a Porridge. Thicker
than a Gruel, and more satisfying.  Still made with water, or with
at least some stock, hopefully some aromatics like garlic,
lemongrass, scallions, sometimes ginger.  

The best ones are like a very soupy Risotto - a dairy free risotto,
there's no "mantecatura," no cheese or butter or other dairy.  But
the Chao still comes with many of the flavorful options of a
Risotto.  The rice grains are first (lightly) toasted in a bit of
oil, and sometimes garlic or onion or scallion might be sweated in
that oil before the rice grains go in.  The cooking liquid may be a
rich stock made from duck or chicken, or pork bones, or derived from
some seafoods.   Versions come with chicken or duck meat included
(and, ideally, the livers too), or beef, shellfish, fish - and for
whatever reason, pork entrails rather than pork meat.  Don't really
no why that is.  Slices or cubes of congealed, cooked pork or duck
blood are also often added, though not by me.  A version with eel
that uses a pork broth, and the eel eggs, for those who find that
tasty.   The fact that there are also Eel Risottos may mean Italians
and Viets both take a good thing too far.  Sometimes the chicken
versions of Chao include mushrooms, just as with Risotto, and that's
just as lovely as a chicken-shroom Risotto.   Typical Chao garnishes
include a finely shredded raw slaw, cilantro, more green scallion,
crispy fried slices of shallot, sometimes pieces of a "Fry Bread."
Sometimes other herbs like ScrewPine or Rau Ram.  One can enrich the
soup with some egg, and there may be no richer way to garnish a
chicken Chao than with an egg that poaches atop the hot soup in the
bowl.

Chao isn't as fussy as a Risotto, and one can make it using Broken
Rice, Jasmine Rice, Glutinous Rice, almost whatever rice one has.  

There are lots of recipes online for Chao, but I don't recommend any
that I've come across so far.  A lot of them are weakly flavored,
too much of the pale "porridge" type.  Some are very Authentically
Old School and assume no one ever has any stock or broth already
made and ready to use.  So they call for you to simmer a whole
chicken, use almost all the meat for something else and just a bit
for the Chao.  Some simply use water, and only water, and I don't
know why the recipe author thinks that's such a great idea.

One of the saddest little Chaos I ever came across was made for an
ailing friend, by his wife.  He wasn't *that* sick, just a flu.  He
asked her for a Fish Chao.  A "Chao Ca." Just asking for that is
perilous, because if that's not made with care and attention, it's
gruesome.  The one she made was gruesome.  Just water, rice, a bit
of fish sauce for salt, and then she cut a lovely tuna steak into
cubes and boiled that in the water with the rice.  Terrible way to
treat my friend, worse way to treat a tuna steak.  And a dreadful
way of making Chao.  That requires a rich stock, lots of aromatics
and herbs, touch of ginger and shallots, etc.  Broil, grill, or
saute the fish separately, to develop its own flavors, then flake it
and add it to the soup.  It's better than "Fish Porridge" will sound
to most people.

Vietnamese markets carry "Instant Chao."  In bowls, to which one
adds boiling water, replace the lid, wait and let it sit.  To my
surprise...  they're not that bad.  Not that good, but for those who
aren't inclined to bother making it, it was better than I expected
it to be.

---


Cheers

YK Jim


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