Acupuncture Healthcare

This is a first in a series I will be presenting on experiments in the kitchen. In Chinese Medicine, we see food, the stuff we chew, swallow, and digest as the first and most important line in medicine. What we eat has a cumulative effect on our overall health, so it’s important to “feel” what food is doing to us and how it’s affecting our sleeping habits, exercise, memory, energy, elimination functions, and so on.

One of the first experiments I often suggest in clinic is jook, aka. congee, rice porridge. Jook is a great experiment for a number of reasons, but mainly it helps us to get in touch with our appetite early in the day. Jook is a simple rice porridge in which nearly the entire kitchen and kitchen sink can be thrown at to flavor any way the appetite dictates. Jook is easy to make. I recommend using a rice cooker with the porridge setting or a crockpot.

Ingredients:
1 cup of long grain rice
6 1/2 cups water or chicken/beef/vegetable broth

Directions:
In a crock-pot, put rice and water in. Turn on HIGH for three hours, or LOW for an over-night cook (wake up to jook).  You can also add the rice left-overs from dinner to the crock-pot, add more water, and slow cook overnight.

My favorite is jook cooked with fresh ginger, chicken broth, and mushrooms. Add some chives to the top or maybe some crushed peanuts to your bowl. If you prefer sweet, throw in some goji berries.

And here are a couple of links for gourmet jook: Epicurious Jook and Bitten Jook
I offer these to give you an idea of just how flexible jook can be.

Tags: appetite, breakfast, jook, Recipes, soup