This congee recipe is my favorite. After about one and a half hours' cooking with enough water, the tastes of the three things all come into one, and every spoonful tastes really smooth.
Ingredients:
1 cup black beans
1 cup rice
1 medium-size sweet potato
Sugar
Rinse one cup of black beans and soak overnight.
PS: If you do not have enough black beans, feel free to add some other beans. In this case, I feel that red beans could be a good choice.
STEP 2:
Personally, I do not throw away the soak water of black beans, in order to preserve the color and nutrients.
So, you could try throwing the beans in a pot together with the soak water.
STEP 3:
Rinse one cup of rice. Add the rice into the pot.
STEP 4:
Pour no less than 8 cups of water into the pot. Cook over medium heat without a lid.
STEP 5:
Peel one medium-size sweet potato and slice in pieces.
Add in the sweet potato. Wait for a couple of minutes until water reaches its boiling point and big bubbles appear on the surface.
Reduce the heat and simmer for one and a half hour.
To avoid water spilling out, you could let the pot cook without a lid for some time, and add the lid after water gets reduced.
Even if when you cover the pot, leave the lid slightly open.
STEP 7:
During the one and a half hour, you could probably take your books, homework, or laptop to the kitchen and do whatever you want. Leaving the kitchen is fine, but remember to check every half an hour. Stir the congee every time you check. Add more water if it becomes dry.
STEP 8:
After about one hour, add around 1/2 cup of sugar in the congee, and stir.
PS: I heard that if you add sugar earlier, the bottom of the pot is more likely to be burnt, and it takes longer time for the rice and beans to get cooked.
For the amount of sugar, if you are not sure, add less in the beginning and adjust later based on personal taste when serving.
If you have sesame seeds, you could also add some in.
The reason for adding a lot of water and cooked for such a long time is because by doing so, the congee would have a more smooth,tasty and richer broth. And believe me, it is the thick broth that makes the congee taste extraordinarily great!
