Clogstoun Congee – how to cook rice for health!

Ingredients for Clogstoun Congee

• 1 cup uncooked long-grain, organic white rice.
• Filtered water, boiling. At least 12 cups-worth.
• Coarse salt, eg sea salt, or a mineral-rich salt
• Some oil. Could be safflower, grapeseed, coconut
• Later, when eaten, you need to add a source of protein and some vegetables. For protein, often best is sliced boiled egg or poached egg. Some recipes suggest sliced scallion, others dried scallops. You can even use yesterday’s leftovers (but not yesterday’s cooked rice.)
• Sliced root ginger. (Not powdered, sugared or candied ginger!)
• Soya sauce
• Toasted sesame seed oil
• Cardamon – you’ll need just a pinch

Believe it or not, 1 uncooked cup of this rice will make enough Clogstoun Congee for at least three or four people!

Making Clogstoun Congee

You’ll need the pot of boiling filtered water nearby, and a largish, flat-bottomed stock pot. In the picture you’ll see a Creuzet pot, but don’t get hooked on this! The pot should have a thick bottom.

• Heat the pot. It should be high heat, almost as high as you might use to make popcorn.
• When it’s hot, pour in the rice, all of it. (No water, yet!) Stir the rice around for a minute or so until you see steam coming off it.
• Add half a teaspoonful of salt. Stir it into the grain.
• Add a few teaspoons of oil. Stir.
• Stir fairly vigorously, to coat all the grains with oil.
• Add about a cupful of boiling water. If your pot is hot enough it will boil vigorously. Stir vigorously. Turn on the extractor fan vigorously. The grains will probably float to start with, vigorously.
• Reduce the heat a little. The mixture should just boil.
• Keep stirring – steadily –  as the rice absorbs the water.

Clogstoun Congee grains gradually absorb more and more water

• When the water seems to have been absorbed but before the rice gets dry, add another cup of boiling water.
• Keep stirring as the rice absorbs the water.
• As it gets almost dry again add another cup of boiling water.

• Keep repeating this. As the mixture absorbs more water it gets larger and it takes longer each time. Keep stirring.
• You’ll notice that some of the starch in the rice comes out and forms a milky liquid that cushions the rice. The appearance of this liquid is important.
• As the volume increases, it needs less constant stirring. It should now be simmering rather than boiling. You can leave it for a while, perhaps 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
• You may need more salt. It can take quite a lot of salt without really tasting salty, but add it gradually.
• Do not allow it to go dry, nor to stick to the bottom of the pan.
• Depending on the time you have, keep adding water. Eventually you could add all the water.
• Again, by the time it’s ready, there should be a kind of almost milky-coloured liquid holding the rice. This milky liquid is the starch.
• Now add (an optional) pinch of cardamon powder, to taste.
• Or add some soya sauce
• And/or add some toasted sesame seed oil (benefits your Kidney energy)

Ready? Now What?

Once it’s done, it will be a semi-fluid rice porridge. See picture. If the rice looks dry, you need more water. (The presence of the milky like fluid is important… Oh! I might have said that before…!)

Take your pick of the following to eat with it:

• nearly always add some sliced fresh root ginger. (Sometimes I put this in with the water as the dish is prepared. Depends how you like it.) The ginger helps your body digest it better but you might leave this out if the Clogstoun Congee is for a baby or infant.
• cooked bean sprouts
• poached or soft-boiled egg
• slices of meat, but not fried meat (too drying and possibly too heating)
• sliced nuts, eg hazel nuts, almonds
• pumpkin seeds
• dried, re-hydrated scallops
• vegetables leftovers from your fridge
• soya or tamari sauce (preferably a good one, without too many preservatives etc)
• sauerkraut
• toasted sesame seeds or oil

Each of these foods has a different ‘energetic’ effect and if you know your constitution well you may be able to choose the particular add-ins to suit yourself that day. (‘Energetic’? Yes, foods have energetic effects quite apart from the temperature at which you serve them. Read more under Nutrition, Hot foods and Cold foods.)

But variety is best. Don’t have the same thing every day. You intestines contain trillions of organisms, mostly good if you are healthy, and they benefit from a varied diet.

If you’re not healthy, what then?

The less healthy you are, the simpler the dish. If you are a convalescent, or have just suffered a shock, or have a very weak digestion, have the Clogstoun Congee on its own until you feel stronger, maybe adding a thin slice of ginger as you stir in water.

For someone gravely ill, it might be all he or she eats to start with.

Each of the foods above benefits a particular organ. The grain itself and the proteins benefit your Stomach and Spleen. Toasted sesame oil helps to consolidate your Kidney energy;  sauerkraut is more for your Liver and Gallbladder.

How Often to eat Clogstoun Congee?

You can take it daily! Or three times a week or … ! It’s up to you.

But if you are trying to regain health, take it daily if possible.

You can also make it with other grains, like oats (Clogstoun Porridgee), millet, even wheat. We’ll have pages on those in due course.

Question about cooking with milk, not water

Milk is a good food, when you need it. But it is very moistening and can lead to the build-up of Damp or Phlegm.

So if you have a very sore, dry throat, some milk added – in the last stages of preparing Clogstoun Congee – might greatly ease the pain.

Other pages to read:

• Blood building foods for stable personality
• Dryness
• You probably have Blood Stasis! Here’s what to do about it!
• Skin care, though you won’t like it
• Clogstoun Porridgee for resilience