When we were in China, most of the buffets we ate breakfast at would serve 3-5 types of congee. Its consistency can be thick like a porridge or thinner and watery.  I never knew what to expect until I lifted the lid of the huge rice cookers and looked inside. Usually all but one of them would have some type of meat in it: either bits or shavings of dried sea animals, broth from a chicken or maybe small pieces of pork.  These don’t appeal to me, so I chose the plain type unless there happened to be one with only peas or carrots in it. My daughter also preferred it plain. 

I wanted to make some congee for my daughter, but wondered, “Can it be made with brown rice?”  As you may know, we use whole foods as much as possible in my kitchen. White rice is stripped of the bran and some of the fiber and nutrients are removed with that, therefore we use brown rice.  I found a recipe and added some additional water. It turned out fine, although it probably took longer to cook than white rice. I didn’t notice though, since it happened while I was sleeping.

========== Plain Brown Rice Congee ==========

1 rice-cooker cup of brown rice (equals 3/4 cup in regular American measurements)
5 cups water

Before going to bed, add the ingredients to your rice cooker and start it up with the porridge setting.  The congee will be ready in the morning.

Note: We use a 5.5 cup Zojirushi Fuzzy Logic type of cooker.

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OK, so that’s not much of a recipe. The fun is in what you choose to add to it. If you want to be more adventurous, feel free to throw in whatever you like. Maybe cinnamon, maple syrup and some raisins similar to how you might prepare oatmeal in the West. Perhaps vegetables, green onions, ginger and soy sauce if you’re having your rice porridge at dinner time?  If you need more ideas, I’ve heard reference to a Qing Dynasty manual written by Huang Yungu which lists over 200 ways to make congee.  Maybe some of those ideas have been translated to English?

My daughter still prefers her congee plain and just finished two bowls of it for breakfast.  Now she’s moved on to dessert – a banana.  I think I’ll try mine in a way sure to make most Chinese people cringe. I’m adding dried cranberries, fresh peaches and a few drops of vanilla extra today.

This time, my budget wasn’t limited to $20, so I thought back to what was on my wish list years earlier. All of my Japanese roommates used similar looking cookers. All of them had chosen either Tiger or Zojirushi brands. I made a trip to the local Asian store to see what was on the shelf nowadays and found the 5.5 cup Zojirushi Micom Fuzzy Logic Rice Cooker, model NS-MYC10.  It now lives on my counter where it is nearly always filled with something.

We’ve had the rice cooker for over a year now and couldn’t be happier with it.  It’s very easy to clean and couldn’t be simpler to use. In the morning, I dump in 1.5 cups of brown rice, 2.5 cups of water and then press the start button. When the rice is done, the cooker beeps eight times and switches to its “keep warm” setting. Rice can stay in the cooker on this setting for 12 hours and for even longer on its “extended keep warm” setting, which helps control dryness and color. At night I fill it with steel cut oats or other breakfast grains and set the timer. When we get up in the morning, breakfast is ready.

I’ve made lentils, barley, brown rice, basmati rice, wild rice, steel cut oats and quinoa in the Zoji. This little appliance has even went camping with us, well cabin-camping with electrical outlets available. (This is what we do in the late autumn when it’s too cold for the tent.)  We used the rice cooker for breakfast oats, for rice at lunch and even to heat up our frozen soups and chili that we brought along for dinners.

In summary:

* Perfect rice every time

* Convenient for cooking whole grains – set and forget

* Easy to clean