Five Black Grains Porridge
五黑粥
English: Five Black Grains Porridge
Chinese: 五黑粥
Pinyin: wu hei zhou
Literal: Five black congee/porridge
This is my favourite Chinese porridge, a tough medal to win with so many excellent porridges vying for first place. Chinese porridge, sometimes known as congee in English, uses whole grains, beans and rices, rather than oats. In Beijing, porridges are usually eaten for breakfast, or recommended when you’re feeling a bit under the weather. Most porridges are packed full of medicinal foods and really do help with perking you up. Chinese congee has a bit of a reputation as being bland and thin, a gruel best served to soldiers on the front lines, but this is nowhere near that, it’s creamy, thick and full of flavour. One of my ultimate comfort foods.
There are usually five black ingredients to this porridge (hence the name): black soy beans, black rice, black sesame seeds, wood ear mushrooms and black peanuts. Every one of these ingredients has a different health benefit, from reducing inflammation (black soy beans) to improving the kidneys (black rice) to reducing colds, fevers and sore throats (wood’s ear mushrooms). Even the brown sugar is said to regulate blood circulation and help combat people that are of cold constitution.
Even if you have no interest in Chinese Medicine, I highly recommend this porridge - after soaking, you can throw everything into the pot and leave it simmering away until it’s ready for you to dive in.
Serves 3-4
Ingredients
30g black soy beans
40g black rice
75g glutinous rice
25g millet
6 jujubes
25g black peanuts (or red-skinned ones)
30-50g wood ear mushrooms
30g brown sugar (more to taste)
1.2 litres of water (more if needed)
25g black sesame
Method
Add the black beans to a bowl, cover with water and soak for at least 3 hours, or overnight if possible.
When ready to cook, drain the beans, add to a large pot with about 400ml of water, bring to the boil and then simmer for 30 minutes.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot, add the another 800ml of water and simmer for about 1.5 hours. If it’s looking a bit dry, add more water. The grains should be almost floating in water, not thick and clumped together. Stir the porridge occasionally to avoid burning the bottom.
Meanwhile, dry fry the black sesame seeds on a low heat. You won’t be able to see when they’re ready so you’ll have to go by smell - when they smell toasty, remove from the heat and then crush them in a pestle and mortar to a course powder.
When the porridge is thick and glossy, taste and add a touch more sugar if needed.
Serve and then spoon a liberal pile of the crushed sesame seeds on top.
