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LIGHT & LOCAL |
| • | Romance your valentine with dinner at home |
I just finished reading the novel "Women of Silk" by a favorite Island author, Gail Tsukeyama. In the book, she kept mentioning jook, the Chinese cream-of-rice soup also called congee. It made me 'ono for the days when my mother would make jook. As I recall, she would always make this soup when we got sick or during the cold months, when it rained a lot (which it's doing as I'm writing this).
Like many cooks of that generation, she never measured. For the plain rice jook, she would take a handful of white rice and boil it in water for about half an hour, until it fell apart, then combine with broth and flavor it. After the holidays, she would use turkey or chicken bones for the broth. Whatever she did, it brought instant comfort.
She would usually cook the jook in a large pot. After the pot was emptied, the starch from the rice left a tough film that was always so hard to clean. She would have to soak the pot in water for a few hours and sometimes resort to boiling the residue with a solution of baking soda and water. Thank goodness for the slow cooker, which eliminates that task.
Back then, white rice was the chosen grain of most local cooks. I didn't acquire a taste and appreciation for brown rice until about 12 years ago, when I started testing recipes for nutritional expert Dr. Terry Shintani. He taught me so much about eating whole grains, and the benefits of brown rice. In his "Eat More Weigh Less" book, he says "Any form of brown rice is better than refined white rice. The rice is brown because it is the whole, unprocessed grain, which accounts for its rich nutty color and chewy texture. That means none of the nutrition has been processed out, and the grain contains its full complement of nutrients, such as vitamin B complex, vitamin E and fiber."
Be sure to use short-grain brown rice for jook; it has more starch. If you have no bones, you can use 2 1/2 quarts organic chicken broth and 2 1/2 quarts water instead.
MOM'S COMFORTING JOOK
(TURKEY RICE SOUP)
In a small bowl, cover the mushrooms with boiling water to reconstitute.
In a large soup pot, combine the turkey bones, water, chung choi and ginger. Cook over medium heat for 1 hour. Remove the bones, chung choi, ginger and celery from the pot and place in a colander to cool. When cool enough to handle, debone the carcass. Strain the stock and return to the pot. Remove and discard mushroom stems, and slice caps into 1/4-inch slices and add to the stock. Add the rice and deboned turkey meat and cook for 1 1/2 hours. (I like to do this in a Crock-Pot, but it takes longer.) To thin out the soup, add chicken broth and cook for another 1/2 hour. Serve hot in Chinese soup bowls. Prepare plate of green onions, Chinese parsley and sliced bamboo shoots as garnish.
Serves 8-10.
Want a local recipe lightened up? Write Light & Local, Taste Section, The Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802; or taste@honoluluadvertiser.com. Carol Devenot is a Kaimuki-raised kama'aina, teacher and recipe consultant, and author of "Island Light Cuisine" (Blue Sea Publishing, paper, 2003). Learn more at www.islandlightcuisine.com.
