Patron Exclusive Recipe #5 Millet and Pumpkin Congee + Red Bean Congee (小米南瓜粥+红豆粥)

Hey Guys, happy weekend.

This week, I want to post two recipes to complement our Baozi video. So in the north, bao zi shops are more of a eatery than a grab & go. Besides baozi, they'll have some simple dishes like mixed vegetable and some congee (sometime soup too) for people to have a whole meal. So today, I want to share two congees that're common in northern style baozi shops. 

Let's get started.

 **Ingredients**  (Serves two alongside with baozi and some other small side dishes)

For millet and pumpkin congee:

1. Millet, 50g, rinse clean, a strainer works the best.

2. Pumpkin puree (pat dried), 100g. If using fresh pumpkin, use 150g and finely diced. A word on pumpkin puree, I usually just steam some sliced pumpkins, mash it and fry it till it turn into a pretty dry puree, then freeze and use whenever I need. 

3. Water, 750g. Grain to water ratio is 1:15.

4. Shredded coconut, 1tbsp, this is my own addition here but it adds a nice coconut flavor.

5. Seasoning to your taste. Alright, so you can have it plain as it is (in the north plain congee is what they serve). Or you can add some salt to taste. For me, I always love my mixed grain congee sweet, so I used 3 tbsp of granulated sugar.

For red bean congee:

1. Red bean, 50g. Rinse it clean, soak in bowl overnight or at least 8 hours with water covering it for 2 inches.

2. Short grain rice, 50g. You can also use jasamine rice here, but short grain is more commonly used in the north. Since we're doing more of a northern style congee, so we don't need marinte our rice like we did for Cantonese ones. Just rinse it clean.

(Rinsed rice, and red bean that's soaked for overnight and almost doubled in size)

3. Water, 2L. Grain to water ratio is 1:20.

4. Seasoning. Again, you can season it to your taste, be it plain (like they do in the north), savory or sweet. For me, red bean congee is definetly sweet, so I used 3 tbsp of granulated sugar.

  **Process**  

So the idea for both congee is basically the same, the only difference is grain to water ratio and timing. I'm gonna combine them in the process so you can also have a general idea of how to make mixed grain congee.

1. Take a pot, pour in your water, bring it to a boil. Don't use a sauce pan like I did in the photos, it was a mistake. It overflows... I wasn't thinking too much as I was making this as my breakfast.

(Don't use a sauce pan like I did, spent so much cleaning up afterwards.)

2. Now that your water is boiling, add in your rinsed millet for the millet version (add in the diced pimpkin now if you're using fresh), or add in your rinsed rice and the soaked red bean.

(Millet in, add in your finely diced pumpkin now if using fresh)

(Or rice and red bean in for the red bean version)

3. For the millet version, turn the heat to low, covered, and let it cook for 20 minutes.

(cover and cook for 20 minutes)

4. For the red bean version, it'll take a higher heat and longer to cook. So keep the heat at medium. Toss in a light metal spoon to help it stir while cooking and prevents overflowing. Also put a chopstick on top of the pot to prevent overflowing. 

Covered, with the lid cracked open by the chopstick, keep it at a heavy simmer and cook for 1.5 hour.

(Keep it at a heavy simmer, which you can see the grains moving. This way the rice can break down and make it creamy)

(Put a chopstick on top of the pot)

(Toss a light metal spoon in to help stir and prevent overflowing)

5.  For the millet version, after 20 minutes, the millet congee is basically done. I'm gonna toss in my pumpkin puree now. And give it a nice stir. After the color turned in to lovely orange, add in seasoning and optionally some shredded coconut, stir and heat off.

(Pumpkin puree in)

(After stir in the pumpkin puree, you see how the colour changed? You can also take a look at the consistency)

6.  For the red bean version, after 1.5 hour, your congee should be nice and creamy. Add in your seasoning, stir, and heat off. 

(This is the consistency of the red bean congee after 1.5 hour of simmering)

7. Now, the congee is done. Isn't it easy?

(The lovely orange colour of millet and pumpkin congee)

(The heartwarming red bean congee. Great with condensed milk too! )

So the millet congee is very quick and easy, you can even do it as a quick breakfast. If you want it to be the thick oat meal porridge consistency, then dial the water ratio down to 1:8.

If you want to make a bigger batch and save it, just put them in a clean container after finish cooking. Scoop out whatever you want to eat with a clean ladel, don't touch it with any spoon you eaten with. The enzyem in our saliva will cause it gone bad really quickly. 

A quick word on GI index for congee, although pretty low in calories, congee is considered high GI food (above 60). So please be careful with congee if you need to watch your blood sugar level. 

Alright, now you can have a complete baozi shop experience alongside with congee and maybe some cold salads or simple veggie (like our three slivers salad or stir fried celery with shrimp). 

Hope you like it and see yo next week~