I had had congee before, and I may have even made this exact recipe years ago, but I'm pretty sure I omitted the meat last time. This is a great, great comforting dish for cold rainy/snowy/freezing-death-rain weather like we've been having lately. I also think it's a nice sub for chicken noodle soup, which, judging from all the sniffling I've heard in class and at work lately, would probably come in handy too.
Some notes on execution:
1. I used brown rice (still long grain) because I prefer using whole grains whenever possible. I wasn't sure it was going to work out...it did, but it took about an hour longer. I also increased the heat a bit and every so often mashed around in the soup to break down the rice and thicken it up. I also cooked it for the last half hour uncovered.
2. HT didn't have "fresh turkey wing," so I used a smoked one. Can I just say that if I ever need to feed a family with pennies a day, they will be eating nothing but turkey wings. This thing was bigger than my head and cost, I kid you not, 68 cents. However, if you use a smoked wing like I did, omit the salt completely. I used half the amount in the recipe, and it still came out pretty salty--which means you can't top with soy sauce, which I like to do with congee. I took the turkey wing out after 1.5 hours, shredded up the meat, and then threw it back into the soup for the remaining cook-time.
3. I wanted some greens, and I saw Chinese celery in the store which I had never seen before buy thought was worth a try. Put in a little less than half the bunch, leaves to stems, chopped into 1-inch-sized pieces. I bet this would be a great way to get people who don't like veggies to eat them, because after 2.5 hrs the celery had essentially disintegrated into the soup and, aside from some green color, was totally indistinguishable.
4. Didn't even bother with all the fixin's.
Served this with some frozen stir fry veggies, dressed with a rice vinegar/soy/honey sauce.
Highly, highly recommend you make this while it's still butt-ass cold outside. It might even improve your spirits--Pat said leftovers for lunch were the highlight of his day. Which is both awesome and sad at the same time.
We currently have 6 tons of leftover turkey sitting in the fridge and this looks like a perfect way to use it up....I may have to make this tomorrow :)
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