Ms Congeeniality

Abra, when cooking congee in a rice cooker, nothing needs to be exact. The rough guideline is 7 parts water to 1 part rice. If your cooker is big enough, you can add all the water in the beginning of cooking. Otherwise you can add less in the beginning, and add the rest in the middle of cooking to avoid bubbling over. Overall, it is always safer to add more water than too little. These were what went into my rice cooker: 1.5 rice-cups of rice + 7 rice-cups of water. Turn the cooker on to "Cook". Cooking time is 1 hour. After turning the cooker on, prepare pork balls. - ½ lb ground pork - ½ tablespoon white pepper powder - ½ tablespoon ginger powder - 1 tablespoon light soy sauce - salt Shape ground pork into clumps of ½" diameter. After 30 minutes into cooking, stir congee about a bit so that it cooks evenly. Add more water as required (2 or 3 rice-cups) at this point. Added seasoning directly into the cooker: - ½ tablespoon white pepper powder - 1" sliced fresh ginger root - 2 sliced reconstituted dry shitake mushrooks - drizzle of sesame oil - salt After another 15 mins, dropped the pork balls into the pot. Stir to distribute evenly. Congee is ready to eat in 15 minutes time. If the rice cooker settings turned to "Keeping Warm", put it back into "Cooking" setting. Although it didn't happen to my rice-cooker, you should rely on your own judgement, and not the automatic indicator. Congee cooked in rice cooker will not burn, unlike that in a stock pot, provided there is plenty of liquid. A non-stick rice cooker has the advantage of no solid crust forming at the bottom of the pot. Water can be substituted with broth for more flavor. p/s: For the benefit of readers unfamiliar with cooking rice, 1 rice cup = 3/4 regular 8oz cup. The rice cup comes with the rice cooker. p/s: Like Post-It Notes, this method was developed by accident. When learning to cook rice at age 11, I added too much water when cooking rice. Luckily all was not lost as the result was congee. Have fun! Ms Congeeniality aka Mrs Laksa