Recipe: Rice Porridge

I'm not a gourmet cook. I'm way to lazy for that. But I like to eat. One of my favorite dishes to get at a Vietnamese restaurant is the rice porridge. Not all the restaurants have it, and sometimes it's only available on the weekends. But I crave it all winter!

I have had the soup with fish, and another restaurant serves it with a variety of meats (shrimp, pork, and chicken). It's good even with no meat at all, and if you're watching your weight you will enjoy that the porridge is thick and creamy without the added fat and calories of actual cream. The only addition to the soup that I consider to be mandatory is freshly sliced ginger root. I would say to julienne the ginger since you want the pieces to be shaped like matchsticks, but I think julienned is way too big (any foodies care to help me out and tell me what this cut is called?). Make the pieces really thin, and 1/2 to 1 inch long.

I won't make any claims about the "authenticity" of my recipe. Like I said, I'm too lazy to worry about things like that. All I know is it's easy to make (but messy! the rice will boil over even if you use a large stock pot) and I really like it.

Rice Porridge

1 cup brown rice
8 cups water
~1/8 - 1/4 cup thinly cut strips of ginger root

4 green onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, sliced
salt
2 tsp. sesame oil
bean sprouts
fresh cilantro
more ginger strips

Combine the rice and water, cover, boil for about 1-1/2 hours. Throw in the ginger toward the end of the cooking time. You may need to add more water as the rice cooks down to maintain a thick soupy consistency. I ended up adding about 2 more cups to mine. Regardless of what you put in the soup, you will probably need some salt.

Sautee the garlic and the whites of the onions in sesame oil with a little salt. I like them cooked until they're brown: this would probably be considered "burnt" for most purposes but it tastes good with this soup. Spoon the porridge into bowls and sprinkle the sauteed mixture on top. Garnish with bean sprouts, cilantro, and ginger to taste. Enjoy!

If you're counting "Points," I estimate that the entire recipe is about 14 points: 12 for the rice, plus 2 for the sesame oil. Depending on how much water you add, you'll end up with 6-8 cups of soup.