Читать книгу A History of Food in 100 Recipes - William Sitwell - Страница 16

9

Congee

AD 636

AUTHOR: Linghu Defen, FROM: The Book of Zhou

While wearing the mourning of nine months, one might eat vegetables and fruits, and drink water and congee, using no salt or cream.

Of the official twenty-four histories of Imperial China, The Book of Zhou stands out – fifty chapters long, some inevitably lost over time – as the one that mentions a dish now enjoyed daily by millions across Asia. As well as recommending it as appropriate to eat during times of mourning, it records how ‘Emperor Huang Di was the first to cook congee with millet as the ingredient’. Today congee is mostly made with rice, but as the emperor showed, where rice wasn’t available it might be substituted with another cereal.

The dish has spread to Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and South Korea. Each culture has its own way of preparing it, although the basic method is pretty much the same, the rice being cooked in large quantities of water so that it disintegrates in the liquid as it’s heated and becomes a sort of thick porridge or soup. It would have been made in this way back in the days of the Tang Dynasty, when The Book of Zhou was commissioned by Emperor Taizong to give the official history of the earlier Northern Zhou Dynasty. Although congee was regarded as a little more special in those times – presented as a gift to the emperor’s nobles. No doubt given as a measure of respect with no end of bowing, it was then gently brought to the lips with gold-tipped chopsticks made of ivory.

Despite all the ceremony, it was, as now, a plain dish – the humblest gift signifying the greater respect. In fact, served on its own without the addition of other ingredients, it would have been almost tasteless. Think of gruel, stodgy from cooking in the pot overnight and served with little more than a smile. Yet its blandness belies its strength. Congee fortifies the body at the start of the day. It is easily digested, providing instant energy and making it a good dish to wolf down if you’re about to be attacked by some aggressive warrior. An expert congee consumer will tell you that by turning a hot bowl of congee in your hands and slurping the cooler parts around the rim, you can get through three bowls in as many minutes. And as it doesn’t sit uncomfortably in your stomach, but is absorbed quickly, you won’t get a stitch while wielding your sword at your attacker.

Congee is sustaining too, ideal for those who need a quick energy boost after exercise or are recovering from illness. Indeed, its fortifying properties are held in such regard that it is often served at funerals. More than that, it has provided life-saving nutrition in a nation ravaged by famine over the centuries. From 108 BC to 1911, China experienced 1,828 famines – that’s almost one a year. The one thing that enabled people to survive, that kept millions of families from starvation, was congee. Congee because of its warming and sustaining qualities and because it is made with rice.

Rice is one of the most important global foods, of which there are some 10,000 varieties. Eight thousand of these are grown for food and they have many advantages over cereal crops such as wheat and barley. Yields are higher and the moisture content is low which means rice can be stored for longer and used during periods of famine. In fact the Tang Dynasty – which lasted from AD 618 to 907 – made much of the value of storing rice by building storage depots near their newly built canals so the rice could be transported to areas of greatest need.

Understanding its usefulness, the Tang Dynasty oversaw a period in which the production of rice became a key part of the agricultural industry. Special tools were developed, as were irrigation systems for transferring water to different paddy fields. Rice was just one part of a flourishing empire, the most glistening period in China’s history. The economy grew, as did the military. Tax collecting became more efficient as every adult male was given an equal-sized plot of land together with an equal tax bill.

The elite loved their congee and so did everybody else – a poor family might get by on little else, after all. Different types of congee were made at different times of the day. On a cold winter’s morning the addition of meat – if you could afford it – warmed the body. At dusk in midsummer as the heat of the day faded, it was made with lotus seeds or hawthorn to cool and refresh. And with the addition of medlar, it would boost the immune systems of the old, feeble and weak.

There is a legend that the recipe for congee was first developed by a fisherman’s wife back in the very dim and distant past. According to this story, she took a boiling pot of rice on board her husband’s boat to provide them with food at sea. But they were assaulted by pirates and so she hid the hot pot under some blankets. Then, when the pirates had gone, she found that her rice, now cooled, had taken on a fragrant flavour and tenderer texture.

Ancient Art & Architecture Collection Ltd: Uniphoto Japan

The Yellow Emperor, Huang Di, was the first to cook congee with millet.

Hence most recipes for congee today involve cooking the rice over a very high heat and then resting the pot for half an hour. Often accompanied by small portions of well-seasoned savoury dishes, its blandness works well as a foil for stronger flavours and if it wasn’t important stuff, there wouldn’t be an entire museum dedicated to it in Fanchung County, Anhui Province. I feel a pilgrimage coming on. After all, even Scotland doesn’t have a porridge museum.