Freezing soups and jook
White Monkey
Does anyone here know if I can freeze jook (congee) and soups like ching bo
leung? Especially with the jook, because I eat it more often, I find I'm
getting royally sick of boiling rice for 3 hours just to have breakfast, and
soup for three hours just to have lunch. It would be great to just pop some
out of the freezer and thaw it. Any experiences, anyone?
Also, jook doesn't by any chance come in cans or bottles, does it? Obviously
home-made is always better, but when I'm in a hurry and want breakfast it
would be nice to have some all ready to go.
Thanks,
Katrina
DC
'herbal' soup is best fresh.
As for chook/jook/congee, I would suggests using rissotto rice & rice
flakes(for making english rice pudding) which you can buy in a non-chinese
supermarket. They cook down much faster then long grain. I get mine done
within an hour. If we had such rice in Southern China, i'm sure the
chook/jook/congee you find now would be the short, plump grains & not the
long grain version which takes longer to break up & release the natural
starch which makes it thick & gloopy. If you have to freeze
chook/jook/congee, i'd just boil a big pot of it w/o any meat or veg. Add
these in when you're reheating.
DC.
, use rice flakes
White Monkey <k.m.c...@chello.nl> wrote in message
news:7Qqy9.84$aO4....@amsnews03.chello.com...
Dan Logcher
> Hi folks,
>
> Does anyone here know if I can freeze jook (congee) and soups like ching bo
> leung? Especially with the jook, because I eat it more often, I find I'm
> getting royally sick of boiling rice for 3 hours just to have breakfast, and
> soup for three hours just to have lunch. It would be great to just pop some
> out of the freezer and thaw it. Any experiences, anyone?
Yes you can freeze it if you like. I usually make about 10-11 cups at a time
so it doesn't last long here. But I have frozen a container or two before and
thawed it out about a month later. Just don't fill the container too much since
a lot of water in it will expand and over flow.
> Also, jook doesn't by any chance come in cans or bottles, does it? Obviously
> home-made is always better, but when I'm in a hurry and want breakfast it
> would be nice to have some all ready to go.
Never seen it canned or bottled. It's too easy to make at home, or buy at
a Chinese restaurant.
--
Dan
Dan Logcher
> If you have to freeze
> chook/jook/congee, i'd just boil a big pot of it w/o any meat or veg. Add
> these in when you're reheating.
No, cook it with meats and stuff and freeze it. The water in the rice soup
makes a perfect insulation from air that otherwise make the meats and
veggies rank in the freezer.
--
Dan
DC
> No, cook it with meats and stuff and freeze it. The water in the rice
soup
> makes a perfect insulation from air that otherwise make the meats and
> veggies rank in the freezer.
Well apart from making it rankin' in the frezzer, i was more concern with
the quality, tenderness & nutritional value of having meat & stuff sit in
congee & being frozen over. Congee traditionally is eaten as a light &
healthy meal. It's often eaten or should i say being 'force' onto sick kids
or people in Chinese culture as a get well meal.(i've had my fair share of
it !) Kind of like the Chinese version of having chicken soup when you've
got a cold.
All i can say is it depends if you like your veg & meat being cooked again
in congee. Some people esp. the older folks like it fresh. It's their
believe that fresh food, meat, veg must be eaten fresh for nutritional value
esp. if it's a 'get well' meal or in the case of Ching Po Leong, a
herbal/medicinal soup. Picture this.... a Chinese sinseh shaking his lowered
head in shame & much dishonour! from finding out that one of his patients
had prepared the traditional, nutritional herbal remedy only to have it
frozen! i haven't been in such a situation but if it was me, i'd suspect i'd
get a loud whack behind the ear from my sinseh. heeheee. followed by a
string of expletives on how ungrateful & stupid i've been, how the ancestors
will be angered & i guess be dragged off to the alter for another frantic
session of lit joss sticks & kowtowing to the ancestors. Heeheeeee.
Back to the congee... it depends on the kind of congee you're making.
There's so many different types, the 'non-healthy' ones ie. the kind you'd
find in late night rests. as a supper dish, these might work well with being
frozen, my guess would be the boney ones, using pork or chicken bones as
stock & meat. Other more delicate ones using fresh fish meat, i can't
imagine these tasting good after thawing & reheating. If on the other hand,
you're taking congee & Ching Po Leong for health reasons, i would say have
them fresh. To make cooking easier, use a crock pot/slow cooker. And if you
have to freeze it, do what Dan says, provide a insulation to keep it from
rankin' & i guess eat it all up as soon as possible.
DC.
alpha beta
White Monkey wrote:
>
> Hi folks,
>
> Does anyone here know if I can freeze jook (congee) and soups like ching bo
> leung? Especially with the jook, because I eat it more often, I find I'm
> getting royally sick of boiling rice for 3 hours just to have breakfast, and
> soup for three hours just to have lunch. It would be great to just pop some
> out of the freezer and thaw it. Any experiences, anyone?
I use my rice cooker to make jook, just add more water than usual and
its done
in 40 minutes. Set it up with a timer and its ready when you wake up!
Just add meat & veggies and enjoy!
I have frozen plain jook with no problem for up to two months.
> Also, jook doesn't by any chance come in cans or bottles, does it? Obviously
> home-made is always better, but when I'm in a hurry and want breakfast it
> would be nice to have some all ready to go.
It does come canned, and it has that awful "Chinese-Canned-Food" taste! ;-(
miss...@cheerful.com
on. I have also tried packets of dehydrated congee ... much like
dried soup packets ... add water and heat for 8 minutes. It was very
good. I don't know the brand but I found it at a large Chinese
supermarket. I was surprised how tasty it was.
Marilyn Lee
"DC" <nospam.displ...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:Frty9.2007$rl.8...@newsfep1-win.server.ntli.net...
drunkenchook
>
> Does anyone here know if I can freeze jook (congee) and soups like ching
bo
> leung? Especially with the jook, because I eat it more often, I find I'm
> getting royally sick of boiling rice for 3 hours just to have breakfast,
and
> soup for three hours just to have lunch. It would be great to just pop
some
> out of the freezer and thaw it. Any experiences, anyone?
What I do is soak any left over cooked rice overnight and boil it into jook
the next morning - cuts the cooking time down drastically. I make a point
not to freeze herbal soups. Sometimes if I haven't got freshly made soup and
fancy some with a meal, I mix some bovril or marmite into boiling hot water
or make a miso soup.
Hope this helps.
Minh Phan
I do this too: re-cook cooked rice in lots of water.
I sometimes use a pressure cooker, and congee is available in 7-10min.
Dan Logcher
> I do this too: re-cook cooked rice in lots of water.
> I sometimes use a pressure cooker, and congee is available in 7-10min.
Wow that's fast! I was thinking of getting a pressure cooker for
jarring foods. Can I use it for both or are there limitations to
the jarring types?
--
Dan
Minh Phan
I don't know about jarring food using a pressure cooker.
Minh
Dan Logcher
> I don't know about jarring food using a pressure cooker.
>
I bought a set of Mason jars to jar up some baby food I was
making. Then I read the directions for the jars, which said
you don't have to use the pressure cooker for acidic foods
like tomatos or citrus fruits.. but for low acidic foods,
you have to heat food in jars in a pressure cooker to 250F
then cap it. That way you can store unrefridgerated jarred
food for long term.
--
Dan