Chinese comfort food 南瓜粥 Pumpkin Porridge

[abcdefg]

Freezing drizzle mixed with light snow flurries outside my window today here in the City of Eternal Spring sent me on a quest for some simple comfort food. Kunming has real good weather overall, but that doesn't mean we totally escape winter. Managed to make a quick run to the fresh market on one of the trusty Ofo shared bikes before getting really socked in.

 

Invested 3 Yuan in a nice slice of long, skinny Yunnan pumpkin 南瓜, not the Jack-O-Lantern kind. The seller had donggua/wintermelon 冬瓜 on offer as well. She lets you buy as much of one as you want, since both these vegetables are usually too large for only one family. Deftly scoops out the seeds and shaves off the thick rind, then chops it into two pieces so it will easily fit inside my shopping bag. Wound up with 600 grams, a little over a 斤 or a pound of usable flesh 肉。

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before anything else, I started washing and soaking the rice. I used one cup total, about half of which was medium-grain white rice 大米, with the remainder being millet 小米 and short-grain sticky rice 糯米。That combination is completely optional; the recipe works just fine with all plain rice instead. 

 

The thing I most often got wrong when starting out making zhou 粥 several years ago was that I always seemed to use too much rice. It's easy to forget how much it will expand during the process of cooking, and you want the result to be soupy, not thick. I would suggest thinking long and hard before exceeding one cup of grain, since it eventually needs to be diluted 10 to 1 or 12 to 1 with water or stock.

 

Next order of business, and another of those simple things that is easy to slight, is to wash the rice very well. The idea is not just to get it clean, but to remove surface rice powder and begin softening or even breaking some of the grains. This is different from making steamed rice where you would like to maintain grain integrity.

 

Rinse it four or five times, each time scrubbing it around with your hands, rolling it between your palms. Consider this some kind of mild primal therapy. Put on loud music if necessary.

 

Then let it soak. Ideally for about an hour. And this soaking water will be discarded before you actually start cooking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now turn your attention to the pumpkin. Wash it quickly under running water and then slice it into thin pieces. These don't need to be tiny slivers, but it works best if they aren't large chunks.

 

 

 

Steam these for 15 or 20 minutes, until they are soft and pierce easily with ordinary blunt chopsticks. Some recipes call for mashing them at this point, but I think that's unneeded labor. While the pumpkin was steaming, I defrosted a large cup of frozen chicken stock that I had made a week or two before. Water can be used instead if you want to go vegetarian.

 

 

 

Poured off the rice soaking water, which by this time was pretty clear, added the stock and enough extra water to be twelve times the volume of the dry rice. Add the soft steamed pumpkin and turn on the heat. I'm using my trusty rice cooker, which has a setting for zhou, labeled 稀饭 because that's the preferred term in Yunnan. Make sure your rice cooker is not more than about three quarters full; don't want it to boil over.

 

 

 

If you don't have a rice cooker you could make it stovetop, but it requires lots of stirring to be sure it doesn't stick. You can also use a slow cooker 电子砂锅。The "zhou" program on my rice cooker takes a little over 30 minutes. But I open the lid every five minutes or so and stir it well with chopsticks. Want to break up any clumps and make sure it doesn't burn in the bottom of the pot.

 

Towards the end of cooking time, I add a teaspoon of salt 食盐 and four or five pieces of rock sugar 冰糖。Taste to be sure the rice is cooked through and completely tender. If not, give it a few more minutes. The results are smooth, steamy, aromatic, and nourishing. I garnished the bowl with a few wolfberries/gouqi 枸杞。

 

 

 

You can use your imagination in adding other ingredients, or you can keep it classically simple. Regardless, it will chase away the cold weather blahs admirably and not saddle you with much in the way of cleanup. Give it a try.

[Shelley]

I have never been a fan of pumpkin, to me the insides are for removing to make a Jack  o'lantern and that's it I also am not a fan of other members of the gourd family.

 

I can however appreciate the simple heart warming meal you describe above, but its not for me.

 

Comfort food for me might be a Shepard's pie (or cottage pie) , spaghetti bolognaise, or mac and cheese for example.

 

I fear my tastes are limited but I don't mind

 

[somethingfunny]

This kind of pumpkin is more like a butternut squash than the kind you buy at halloween.

[Shelley]

Yes I realise that, but they are all gourds.

 

[xuexiansheng]

@abcdefg I have been watching this Youtube channel Chinese Cooking Demystified for inspiration cooking Chinese food. It reminds me a lot of your cooking posts. If you can get through the Great Firewall, I recommend it!

[abcdefg]

Thanks, @xuexiansheng-- I'll take a look. Appreciate your suggestion.

 

On 11/24/2017 at 9:26 PM, somethingfunny said:

This kind of pumpkin is more like a butternut squash than the kind you buy at halloween.

 

I think it has quite a bit more flavor than a "Halloween Pumpkin." This oblong variety is usually called 蜜本南瓜。Very popular here in China because they are inexpensive, nourishing and versatile (being both sweet and savory.)

 

Can be used to make a variety of breads and cakes 南瓜饼; popular as the basis for soups and stews. Often served just cut into pieces and steamed as a side dish, especially beside something spicy.

 

But, of course, that's neither here nor there if you dislike all squash, melons, and gourds. No worries; I'll have to be sure and make something else the next time you come for dinner, @Shelley!

 

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Anyhow, here's Day 2.

 

 

 

 

 

Dressed it up today by adding sliced mushrooms 香菇 and young scallions 小葱 into part of what was left over. Fried them quickly in a deep skillet, added salt and pepper, stirred in some of the previous pumpkin zhou 南瓜粥 and cooked it a few minutes to blend the new flavors.

 

 

 

Tomorrow I might blend part of the remainder with some sauteed ground meat or a couple of century eggs 皮蛋 finely chopped, thus avoiding the monotony of eating the same thing too many days in a row.

 

What restaurant cooks often do, when they offer five or six kinds of zhou on the menu, is make a large pot of the basic plain formula 粥低, and then if a customer orders zhou with fish slices or seafood 鱼片海鲜粥, for example, add the required extra ingredients to a small pot off to the side. Similarly if you ask for zhou with lean pork and century eggs, 瘦肉皮蛋粥，they prepare your order in a small pot, adding the necessary ingredients and cooking it for a few additional minutes time.

 

[Shelley]

I have a hankering for scrambled eggs and tomatoes.

 

There has been a recent thing in the media (mostly Chinese news, Wechat, etc) about a young chinese student in school in USA who decides he wants to impress his friends with a traditional and delicious plate of scrambled eggs and tomatoes. Not sure how to cook this, he sends a "help me" message. His mother makes the dish with explanations while dad films it for the son to watch. The son makes the dish and rushes off to his friends house to share it. Only later does realise that his parents must have got up in the middle of the night (having forgotten the time difference) and done all this to help him half asleep

 

Its an ad for a student credit card, but has It has cause a stir because of the reaction of the parents to help whatever time it was and the sons assumption that they would. Its all about how much help is too much or too little and is he really a "mummy's boy" because he never learnt to cook such a simple meal.

 

Anyway it has been in the media quite a bit and every time I see it I think "oh that sounds wonderful, must try that."

 

I have been racking my brains trying to remember if you did this awhile ago or a version of it.

[abcdefg]

番茄炒鸡蛋

 

https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/53734-the-basics-tomatoes-and-eggs-番茄炒鸡蛋/?tab=comments#comment-412117

[Shelley]

Thank you, I am glad my memory was right

 

My mother used to put sugar on tomatoes, I am a salt person though.

[Alex_Hart]

Looks great, abcd! This is one of my favorites when my stomach is woozy or during the cold weather months. I rarely make it at home because I hate peeling the squash so much!

[abcdefg]

Quote

I rarely make it at home because I hate peeling the squash so much!

 

The vendor first weighed it, then scooped out the seeds and peeled it for me (and other customers) at the point of sale using something that looked like a large shielded knife. Held the piece of squash in one hand and hacked at it the surface of it, pushing away from her body.

 

She made it look easy, but I'm still guessing it's an operation that required lots of practice to do safely. Not something I would try to do the same way at home. Good way to acquire the nickname "three-fingers Slim."

 

Wish this squash had a more distinctive name than simply "pumpkin" since it has much more flavor than the Thanksgiving/Halloween food most of us think of in the west. The actual Chinese name of this oblong variety is 蜜本南瓜, but it doesn't translate well. Maybe I'll start calling it "Chinese honey-stem squash" to give it a little class.

 

[imron]

6 hours ago, abcdefg said:

Wish this squash had a more distinctive name than simply "pumpkin"

Butternut Pumpkin (or sometimes Butternut Squash) is what they're known as in Australia.

[Shelley]

That's what they are called here in the UK - Butternut Squash.

 

As a nut allergy sufferer this has always been off putting even though logically I know it has nothing to do with nuts.

[Alex_Hart]

If it's the same thing, it's also called butternut squash in NYC. 

 

Yes, I've seen them peel it - similar knife to what they use to peel the sugar cane. My girlfriend never lets me tell the aunties to peel or cut stuff for me because most of them are using grimy knives covered in rust. I figure I can wash it off, but my girlfriend would kill me.

[amytheorangutan]

@abcdefg I must give this a try as I love congee ? your recipes are great! 

[abcdefg]

Thanks, Amy. It's a dependable recipe. Easy to make and easy to alter according to one's individual preferences.