Chow Vegan

Good Eat • No Meat

  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Product Reviews

Jook

May 9, 2008 By chow 8 Comments

Jook

Jook, also known as rice porridge or congee is my idea of comfort food. It reminds me of Mom, home-cooking and all things good. For other people, it’s mac ‘n cheese, chicken noodle soup, buttery mashed potatoes or fill-in-the-blank.

It’s purportedly good for whatever ails you. Got digestive problems? Eat jook. Feeling under the weather? Have some jook. Have a hangover? Here’s a bowl of jook. Fortunately, I’m not dealing with any of those issues at the moment, I just like to eat jook for jook’s sake.

I make mine home-style with all sorts of goodies to flavor the jook while it’s cooking. It’s endlessly adaptable – add whatever ingredients you like, leave out the ones you don’t. My Mom likes a variety of ingredients in her jook, one of which is gingko nuts. I don’t like gingko nuts. I will actually pick them out of my bowl. Mom carries on that they’re expensive, I generously offered mine to her but she didn’t want them. Sorry Mom.

Restaurant-style jook is cooked plain and then topped with your choice of various condiments and garnishes. Sometimes I like to top mine with French’s French Fried Onions for a nice crunchy texture.

Jook

I learned to make jook in a large pot, nowadays, I use a fuzzy logic rice cooker with a porridge setting. It makes it super easy. I don’t have to monitor the rice cooker like I would with the pot and it’s a breeze to clean up.

Jook
Makes about 5 1/2 cups

1/2 cup long-grain white rice
4 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked until soft, then chopped
2 1/2 tablespoons Tianjin preserved vegetable, rinsed
1 tablespoon minced ginger
3 ounces baked tofu, chopped
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 green onions chopped
Soy sauce

Cooking directions is for use with a rice cooker with a 5.5 cups capacity. Using the inner pot of the rice cooker, rinse the rice well in several changes of water until the water is clear. Add water to the marked level on the pot according to the rice cooker’s directions.

Add the chopped mushrooms, preserved vegetable, and ginger. Select the porridge setting to begin cooking. The rice cooker will do its thing while you relax. Occasionally, give the pot a stir. After about an hour and a half the rice cooker will beep that it’s done.

Add the tofu, sesame oil, and vinegar to the rice cooker. Press the reheat button to cook another 5 minutes, it’ll beep again when time is up. Ladle into bowls and garnish with green onions. Drizzle with soy sauce to taste.

Filed Under: Soups Tagged With: chinese food, congee, jook, recipe, rice porridge, vegan jook, vegetarian jook

« Spicy Baked Potato Chips
Chinese 5-spice Baked Tofu »

Comments

  1. Paulina says

    May 9, 2008 at 5:46 pm

    I just finished reading a book called Snow Flower And The Secret Fan in which congee is mentioned several times. I had no idea what it was but I’m glad I know now!

    Reply
  2. Lisa (Show Me Vegan) says

    May 9, 2008 at 8:22 pm

    I’ve never heard of jook. It looks comforting. Lovely photos!

    Reply
  3. chow says

    May 11, 2008 at 10:17 pm

    Paulina – Glad I was able to enlighten you about congee. :D

    Lisa – Thanks! It really is comforting! :-)

    Reply
  4. Valerie says

    May 13, 2008 at 6:45 am

    I eat this every time I visit Vietnam. It is called chau, in Vietnamese. It had cilantro in it, as well. It was so delicious. Now I can make it for myself. Thank you for this recipe.

    Reply
  5. chow says

    May 14, 2008 at 9:19 pm

    Valerie – I guess most Asian countries would have their own version of rice porridge. I’ve never had cilantro in it before, sounds like a great topping. :-)

    Reply
  6. Barbara says

    October 16, 2008 at 2:11 pm

    I wanted my dad to teach me how to make jook before I left for college, but he told me it was really simple: just put 10x more water in the rice cooker than usual. Unfortunately, he also didn’t give me a rice cooker. Could you possibly post the recipe in which you make it in a pot?

    Reply
  7. chow says

    October 16, 2008 at 8:17 pm

    Barbara – My mom told me 3 or 4x’s more water than normal. :-)

    I haven’t made jook in a pot for awhile now, so I don’t have exact measurements at the moment. But next time I make jook, I’ll cook it in a pot and post the recipe.

    Reply
  8. trina says

    November 27, 2011 at 1:50 pm

    This is just what I wanted for lunch. Thank you.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Chow Vegan 2020 CNY Bunny

Hello. Welcome to Chow Vegan, land of the free roaming bunny bringing you recipes and reviews of good eats with no meats from here to way over there.

Subscribe

  • Flickr
  • Pinterest

Shop Amazon Year of the Rat Tee

Shop Amazon Bunny Before Beauty Tee

Bunny Before Beauty Tee

Copyright © 2008-2020 Chow Vegan. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of photographs, text and/or graphics without express and written permission from Chow Vegan is strictly prohibited. Links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Chow Vegan with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Now Reading

Chow Vegan is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

 Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to Chow Vegan by Email

Copyright © 2025 Chow Vegan. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy