Frugal Kitchens – Saptarshi’s Congee

I have never met Saptarshi in person but one doesn’t really need to meet him to appreciate his work and be a fan of it. The man behind the famous Bongeats channel, his reputation precedes him. Saptarshi very kindly agreed to share his recipe of congee for the Frugal Kitchens.

As he writes –

“Congee is eaten in one form or the other in all of Asia. I grew up eating it as phena bhaat (rice with starch). It is a personal favourite because it is versatile, easy to make and is so hearty. Congee can be as frugal as just rice boiled in water and it can be dressed up with various condiments and garnishes to be as fancy as you want it to be.

With all of us under lockdown, I happened to have some leftover beef in the freezer which I have decided to use for this recipe. You can use whatever meat you have at home. If you use chicken, skip the two step cooking process and put everything in the pressure cooker instead. This tastes good even without the meat. You can add vegetables or lentils instead if you’d like.”

Cooking time: 1 hour
Serves: 3–4

Rice: 200 g, Beef (or mutton): 200 g, Onion: 20 g (half an onion), Ginger: 10 g, Salt: 11 g, Water 1500 g, Dried shitake mushrooms: 2 (optional)

Garnishing options:
*Ginger cut into thin sticks, *Spring onions, *(Soy sauce + Sesame oil) or fish sauce, Chopped green chillies, Fried onions or Fried garlic, Fried egg

Prep:
1. Wash short grained non parboiled fragrant rice such as gobindobhog/kali jira in two changes of water and set to soak for 30 minutes. Don’t wash the rice too much, we need the starch here.

2. Place a pressure cooker on the stove. Don’t turn on the stove yet.

3. Divide a medium onion into halves. Quarter one half and put it in the pressure cooker.

4. Thinly slice other half and set aside.

5. Slice 10 grams (about an inch) of ginger into rings and put in the pressure cooker.

6. Wash the dried shitake and discard stalks. Cut into thick slices and put in the pressure cooker.

7. Add meat, cut into large pieces, into the pressure cooker.

8. Add 12 grams of salt, roughly 2 teaspoons into the pressure cooker.

9. Close the lid, turn on the heat, and wait for the steam to build up (listen for the faint sizzling sound of the whistle). Once it does, lower the heat to the minimum and pressure cook for 15 minutes. Turn off the stove and let the pressure release on its own (about 15 minutes).

10. Remove the ginger and onions if you want. If you want a better final presentation, strain the stock.

11. Set the rice on a strainer and drain away excess water. Add the rice to the pressure cooker along with the stock, meat and mushrooms (if using). The quantity of the liquid by volume should be 7–8 times the rice for a nice runny consistency.

12. Close the lid, wait for the pressure to build, then pressure cook for 10 minutes at the lowest heat setting. Turn off the stove and wait for the pressure to release on its own.

13. Open the lid and check the consistency. The rice should be broken and should look like a porridge.

Prep your garnishes while the meat and rice is being pressure cooked.

1. The most important garnishes here are the thinly julienned ginger, some soy sauce and green onions. Everything else is optional. Since I did not have green onions I used the slightly wilted garlic leaves I had.

2. I also like to thinly slice garlic and deep fry them in a small sauce pan (the small ones used for tempering spices) until light golden and crispy.

3. For some sweetness to balance the savouriness, in the same saucepan I fry the other half the onion until crispy, golden, and sweet.

4. If you want some protein in addition to the the meat in the congee, fry an egg in the oil left from frying the garlic and the onion. Fry it on medium heat so that the outsides are crispy brown and the yolk is still runny.

5. Finish with a few drops of sesame oil and a teaspoon of a good chilli oil.