This congee version ads vegetables to the rice and some crispy meat on top. Its a good way to use left over rice and I would consider this a great starter dish.

This video by Ethan Chlebowski inspired me to play around with Congee a bit more. As I wanted to try out crisping minced meat as topping I decided to try a bulgogi version.

Ingredients

Congee:

• 250g cooked rice
• 600g water
• 150g carrots
• 150g red paprika
• 1/2tsp lemon juice Topping:
• 200g minced beef
• 1tsp soj sauce
• 1tsp oyster sauce
• 1tsp sugar
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1tsp rice vinegar
• 1 spring onion
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

Congee: Rasp the carrots and paprikas and mix all ingredients (except the lemon juice) in a pot. Bring it to a boil and let it simmer covered until the rice fully dissolved and you get a thick consistency. At the beginning you only have to stir occasionally, at the end you should keep a close eye on it. After you reached the wanted consistency remove it from the heat and add the lemon juice.

Topping: For the topping place the minced beef in a pan. Cut the spring onion and place it aside. Measure all other ingredients and combine them in a glass. Start frying the meat on high heat. It should render enough fat so you don’t have to add additional one, though you can if you want. Stir it and let it fry until it gets darker and really crispy. After that it is time to add the spring onion. I put a bit of the greens on the side for garnishing the dish later on and mixed the rest under the meat. Let this fry for about a minute or two.

Prepare an empty bowl before adding the sauce to the meat. Turn off the heat and add the sauce, garlic and spice mix to the meat. Mix it in fast. Once incorporated remove the meat from the pan into the bowl. This part is critical as neither the sauce nor the garlic will stand the heat of the pan for too long. It might taste burned or bitter otherwise.

For serving I added a portion of Congee in a bowl before adding the crisp meat. For garnish I added some greens from the spring onion and some sesame seeds. Taste wise I think there are several options you could add, like sesame oil or ginger spring-onion oil if you want it to be more refreshing.