ELIXIR CONGEE

GINGER, CARROTS, PIGEON PEAS, SAVOY CABBAGE RICE CONGEE

Those are pretty much the ingredients for this healing soup, in that order you cook it with a little olive oil for sauté, it's good to have a hot vegetable stock standing by, also cooked white rice, you just have to do the slice-prepping of the roots and legumes in advance and you're good (it will take less than fifteen minutes to finish in the pot), but this recipe is ancient in the Orient and tastes divine. I hope one of my old friends in New York is reading this blog at the moment and inspire to make it given the weather there. 

The key to enjoying this healthy soup and getting all its vitamins and nutrients is temperature. Scalding but perfectly drinkable through a big concave spoon (or if you're like me, straight from the bowl) as it percolates in your mouth the steaming vapor is given off and goes down slowly like free fall in your chest and gut while warming you bodily when you needed warm. Dante, the Divine Comedy bard, in classical times wrote that if you do something extraordinary for yourself then the soul comes around and comes alive. Especially if you're under the weather. I finish off the broth fast at intervals of chopsticking the greens to chase it down, and when my forehead is perspiring the soup is gone, but the porridge and the peas remain for encore nurturing. Now the soul is full. 

How to: In a medium sauce pan with handle, over med-high heat, sauté ginger, carrots and peas until browning on all sides (keep stirring, though, to char evenly) and when aromatic add the cooked rice, stir in, add salt, pepper, chili flakes, add a ladle of the standing by veg stock - it will sizzle and bubble and that's the dynamic you want to release the gastronomy of your soup. When settled, add more stock almost to the brim of the pan, and allow to boil. Then finally add your cabbage in, just the ribboned leafy greens only for mild bittersweetness taste (I saved and pickled the stems separately). Cover for 5 minutes, turn to medium heat. Look at the soup through the glass lid; it's ready when the greens are bright and the pigeon peas are peeping on top. Transfer to an enormous Oriental bowl and your elixir congee is up.