White Congee (粥) - instant pot rice porridge recipe - basic plain recipe - Part 1! 🍚🍚🍚

Plain old Congee! an instant pot rice porridge recipe - Part 1 - Plain old congee!

Sometimes you just need a good bowl of jook, or congee. It’s a Chinese rice porridge - and it’s warm, comforting and customizable to no end! We eat it on many occasions, when we’re sick, for breakfast or sometimes late at night after partying!

Anyway, there are many different ways to enjoy congee. You can throw in all sorts of seasonings, toppings, meats or other things to change the dish. Often, the rice is cooked along with ingredients like dried scallops or pork bones to flavour the congee. The congee itself can come in all sorts of different textures, from runny to thick. My personal favourite texture, is thick and creamy and melt in your mouthy. But I’ll be showing you how to make it both silky and thick today. Best of all, I’ll be making it in the instant pot, which means it’ll be super hands off and easy, unlike the way our parents had to make it, standing over the stove top!

Rice and porportions
First, what kind of rice should you use? You can use many different types of rice. Some recipes call for sushi rice, or glutinous rice, and others suggest short grain rice, but we typically just use the rice we already have on hand, which is jasmine rice, and that’s what I’m using today.

For chunkier congee, use 1 part rice to 7 parts water.

For silkier and creamier congee, use 1 part rice to 10 parts water.

Instructions:

1. (Optional) Wash rice by adding a good amount of water to the rice, using your fingers to agitate the rice and then pour out the water. Note that many chefs will tell you that you do not need to wash the rice to retain starch to help thicken the congee. Personally, I like washing it still to remove any impurities. But the quality of rice is much better nowadays, so I’m just being extra careful.

2. Add the rice to the instant pot and then add water (see portion above). You may also want to use stock instead of water for additional flavour. That’s how I normally make it when I want a more nutritious congee for baby food!

3. Give the rice mixture a quick swirl to make sure the rice is even and submerged.
4. Put the lid on the instant pot, switch the valve to seal and set the instant pot to pressure cook on high for 20 minutes.

5. When the timer goes off, naturally release for 10 minutes and then manually release the rest of the pressure. Open the lid of the instant pot and give a stir. The congee will look runny at first, but will thicken when stirred and will continue to thicken as it cools.

These portions make about 2 servings, so adjust for a larger meal as necessary!

Stay tuned, for PART 2 of this video where I share some of my favorite toppings and variatoins on plain ol' congee.