Breakfast Sausage Congee

I like rice. Risotto, pilaf, fried, sticky, brown, even plain white rice but what rice do I make for breakfast? I then remembered that Dim Sum restaurants sometimes serve congee, sometimes called jook (pronounced joke), a tasty rice porridge. This rice dish is the ultimate Chinese comfort food. Because it is very easy to digest, it is fed to children, older people and those people who are sick although without a lot of seasoning. In the Dim Sum restaurant version I am familiar with is usually flavored with chicken, mushroom, garlic, ginger and a unique Chinese ingredient, a thousand year old egg (a preserved egg made by curing the egg in a curing mixture for ten days).  For my version I will flavor it with a regular egg, cheese and breakfast sausage to make a American breakfast version. To make our version more special we can make our own sausage, but to save time you can use store bought. It just is not as good as fresh ground and homemade.

Ingredients:

 For the sausage - 

1 pound freshly ground pork

 2 cloves minced garlic

 4 or 5 fresh sage leaves finely chopped

 1 teaspoon fresh finely chopped thyme

 pinch of red pepper flakes

 pinch dried rosemary 

 salt and pepper to taste

 For the congee -

 3/4 cup long grain rice

 1/2 pound cooked crumbled sausage

 1 large

 sweet onion diced (about 2 cups)

 4 cups chicken stock

 1 cup water

 1 tablespoon fresh finely chopped thyme

 4 cloves minced garlic

 1 tablespoon fish sauce or sub anchovy paste

 salt and pepper to taste

 2 to 4 eggs

 2 chopped scallions

Procedure:

 For the sausage - 

 1. To 1 pound ground pork add minced garlic, thyme, rosemary, sage, red pepper flakes and season with salt and pepper. Mix well and fry a small bit in a skillet to test for taste and seasoning. Using your taste add more seasoning if needed and retest. When you are satisfied with the taste form into patties or stuff into casings if you wish. Makes 4 large patties or 6 smaller.

 For the congee - 

 1. In a large saucepan sauté the sausage and crumble into pieces and transfer to a bowl. Add the onion and garlic into the saucepan, season with salt and sauté in the rendered fat until the onion start to turn brown. remove to the bowl with the sausage.

 2. In the saucepan, toast the rice for 2 to 3 minutes then deglaze with the water. Add the remaining ingredients except the eggs and scallions and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the rice breaks down adding more water if the mixture becomes too dry.

 3. Before serving, add two to four eggs and cook until the whites are solid. Serve with a garnish of freshly cracked pepper and chopped scallions.

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