congee

[kindkit]

It's been cold here--today's high temperature was 26F, or about -3C, which is about twenty degrees Fahrenheit colder than normal. And even though it's hardly unheard-of for it to get that cold here, most buildings are not constructed or insulated for it. *shivers*

So every day I've been coming home from work craving soup. But soup is not convenient to make after a full day's work. It finally occurred to me, though, to use my slow cooker. This morning before work I filled it with the makings of congee (rice porridge). Since I knew I wanted to use dried shrimp as a topping, I went for Thai/Vietnamese flavors rather than Chinese ones; I used rice, some chicken stock and water (probably about 3/4 water to 1/4 homemade stock, because congee is normally made with quite a light stock or even just water), a piece of lemongrass and a few lime leaves. I could probably have left out the lemongrass and lime leaves, because I couldn't taste them at all in the final product. I think they cooked so long that all the flavor cooked away.

I came home to find a slow cooker full of nice thick hot porridge, and all I had to do was prepare some toppings. I browned some raw peanuts in a little oil, then browned some dried shrimp, and chopped up some green onion. A generous amount of fish sauce (I believe I have mentioned that I really really like fish sauce?) plus some chile paste and lime juice flavored the bland congee, the toppings added some more flavor and some textural variety, and it was exactly what I was craving.

In conclusion, slow cookers are awesome. But I wish I had one where the timer was independent of the temperature setting. On mine you can cook on high for 4 or 6 hours or on low for 8 or 10 hours. But because I live at quite a high altitude, liquids in the cooker will eventually boil even on low. What I usually do is bring whatever is inside to a simmer and then switch to the "keep warm" function, which cooks most things just fine. Today, because I had to get to work, I had to set it for 4 hours on high and hope for the best. I worried quite a lot throughout the day that I would burn my dinner and/or set my apartment on fire, but it was okay.

Comments

[the_rck]

I have no idea if this would appeal to you, but I have soup recipe that can be prepared in about fifteen minutes if you have boxed or canned broth. It's spinach bean soup which doesn't appeal to everybody, but everybody in my family enjoys it.

Take 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup oil. (If you want a thicker soup, use more flour and oil. Just keep the amounts equal.) Put them in a soup pot, mix them and heat them until the mixture bubbles and starts to smell sort of nutty.

Add 1 box (1 quart) of broth, any kind you like. (A good vegetable broth makes this recipe vegan.) You may need to whisk to get the flour lumps to mix in.

Add 1 package of frozen spinach. Most frozen spinach around here comes in 9, 10 or 12 ounce packages. Any of those are fine. Heat until the spinach thaws.

Drain and rinse 1-2 cans of beans. (I use white northern beans, but any beans should be fine.) Add them to the soup.

The soup can be done at this point, but I like to add some salt and some herbs. I've used winter savory, thyme and sage, but you could use just about anything that appeals to you.

Simmer the whole thing for five minutes or so, and it's done.

I like to add shredded cheese to my bowl, but the soup is good without. It's especially good with a nice crusty bread, and it reheats well.

[kindkit]

Thanks for the recipe! I think I'd been craving a very particular kind of soup, something thick and substantial and, well, congee-like. I actually have some turkey soup with beans and kale in the freezer, but it wasn't quite what I was in the mood for. Anyway, I'll keep this recipe in mind for future occasions of "need soup NOW." Because canned soups just don't cut it.

[vilakins]

YUM! I like fish sauce too; it adds so much to an Asian dish. I've had people object to the smell though when eating heated leftovers at work in a previous job. [rolls eyes]

My slow cooker will do low, high, or auto which is high for a time then low. I'm at sea-level here on the coast so it works well, but I can imagine how hard it is for you. Do you find food and drinks hot enough?

[kindkit]

Things get hot enough--the boiling point of water at my altitude is about 199F or just under 93C, which is still plenty hot. The main problem is that anything that's cooked by boiling or nearly-boiling liquid, such as potatoes, pasta, and dried beans, takes much longer. Plus, as I said, the slow cooker boils and then the liquid can boil away, or if I'm making stock, fat can get emulsified into the stock and make it greasy-tasting. I think part of the problem may be the slow cooker itself; I'm pretty sure the low setting shouldn't result in a temperature of 199F, but it does.

I've learned to adjust for the altitude in baking, but I'm sure I still get slightly different results than if I were at sea level.

[vilakins]

I just looked up your altitude - yep, that's high! We sometimes go to Taupo on holiday and that's only 1/6th of your elevation. I love the climate there though: nice and dry unlike the very humid coastal weather here.

Did it take you long to acclimatise?

[kindkit]

I had a hard time acclimatizing to the altitude. I felt pretty wretched for the first two or three weeks. It's a little too low for altitude sickness, but the altitude adjustment here, while not dangerous for most people, can be unpleasant. You lose your appetite for a while, your sleep is disturbed because something about the carbon dioxide levels in your blood causes you to stop breathing repeatedly in the night so you have to semi-wake up (this actually never goes away), and of course there's lower energy and breathlessness with exercise.

In some ways I never have acclimatized. Most people who live at higher altitudes adjust, physiologically, by making more red blood cells. But I'm anemic, so not only can I not compensate for the altitude, I'm actually worse off than a non-anemic person who had just come from sea level. Mostly I feel fine, and I was never a hugely energetic person anyway so it's not always easy to tell the difference! But I do seem to need more sleep, here, than I used to.

[vilakins]

That's not good. Are there things which make up for it at all? I've heard the climate is lovely and dry (living in a stiflingly humid place as I do) and the photos I've seen look beautiful: the architecture and surrounds.

[kindkit]

Very belatedly replying:

I do enjoy the dryness, although not so much now in the winter. It's nice in the summer though because the dry air means the temperature cools well down at night.

The mountains are beautiful, although I am not the sort of adventurous person who goes off into the mountains to do things, but I enjoy seeing them in the distance as I go about my life. The architecture, though . . . a lot of it is fake. It's modern buildings which are not actually made of real adobe but are designed to look like traditional adobe construction. The effect is pretty at first but soon becomes boring (OMG everything is BEIGE!) and the fakeness of it soon begins to feel like living in a theme park. The city of Santa Fe is very old by American standards--its history as a European settlement date back to the 16th century--but very little survives from that era. The modern economy is driven by tourism, so there's a lot of fauxdobe and such to appeal to visitors. And because of the tourist economy and because Santa Fe is also a sort of suburb of Los Angeles (a lot of Hollywood people have second homes here) prices are high and there's very little mid-range shopping: the choices are expensive boutiques or Wal-Mart, basically.

Sorry to be so negative, but this isn't the place I would prefer to live if I had free choice. I'd much rather be in Albuquerque, the city about 50 miles southwest of here. It's a real city of about 500,000 people (vs. Santa Fe's 60,000 or so) and is cheaper and less tourist-focused. I'm just really an urban person by preference. Give me bookstores and inexpensive ethic restaurants and you can keep the mountains.

[vilakins]

I didn't realise a lot was fake; photos often look so much better than RL. As for beige, a new suburb built in a quarry near where I live is all beige and grey, and though the houses are beautiful on the inside and there's a real community spirit there (a colleague lives there) it's visually incredibly boring. I thought Santa Fe would be all terracotta and orange and other lovely desert colours. Oh, well.

Can you transfer to Albuquerque or look for some work there? Yeah, I know, that's so stressful and horrible - I earn less than I did when I started programming and the cost of living's gone up about 400%, but I'm sticking with this job because it's OK and safe (unless the company goes bust).

The wonderful astrogirl2 lives in Socorro and goes to Albuquerque for cinemas and shopping etc. Do you know her?