I just came home from my trip to Vermont and let me tell you, there’s no place like California. The lush canopy of Fall-colored trees will never persuade me to move to the East Coast. It was bone-chilling cold (at least for this California girl) and it wasn’t even winter. But more importantly, the lack of food diversity had me yearning for home. Finding authentic Vietnamese food was nearly impossible unless you traveled over to a state or two to major cities like Boston, MA.
The chilling temperature and me coming down with a cold had me thinking of one thing and one thing only. A nice hot bowl of Vietnamese thick rice porridge soup (Chao), also known as congee or gruel. The soft texture makes it a favorite among elders, babies and those who are sick. With less than a cup of rice, you can make a pot of chao to feed the whole family.
Chao can be served very plain with just rice simmered in water or stock until thick and creamy. This is best for those who are sick with indigestion and cannot stomach anything flavorful. I, on the other hand, like to use chao as a blank canvas for something magical.
For this particular chao recipe, I made a very flavorful stock out of pork neck bones, ginger and onions. I use pork neck bones because there’s plenty of tender and juicy meat on neck bones. That tender meat gets hand chopped into ground pork that is way more flavorful than any store-bought version, which typically gets made from other tough parts of the animal.
For the rice, I really want a smooth texture. The smooth texture is something I noticed in restaurants all over Vietnam. The Vietnamese restaurant version of chao is always very creamy and smooth, unlike homemade versions. To get this smooth texture, I used three types of rice grains: white rice (gao), sweet rice (nep), and rice powder (bot gao). I started off with soaking the white rice and sweet rice grains in water. Then I pulverized them in a blender or food processor. Chopping the grain into small bits will yield a smooth paste onced cooked. The rice powder gets added later, which not only helps with the creaminess, but it makes the porridge white.
To finish off the chao, I topped it with ground/chopped pork, fried shallots, sliced fresh ginger, green onions and black pepper. Dig right on it and get spiritually transported back to Vietnam. Enjoy the recipe below.
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