Vegetarian Cha'o Ga` / Chicken Congee

Cha'o Ga` Chay / Vietnamese Chicken Congee 

 For the congee:

1 Cup of Rice

1-2 gallon(s) of Water

1 Medium Onion  slice in 4

Mushroom Seasoning 

Rinse the rice, add water & onion in a big pot and leave it on the stove at high heat till boils.  Then turn heat down to a medium and stirring occasionally so that the rice would not settle at the bottom which could burnt...we don't want to do that!

I suggest using a non-stick pot so that when the rice settles in your pot before you get a chance to stir them up, you could scoop them up without a problem! 

Keep it on the stove until the mixture thickens usually an hour is good.  Depending on how thick of a soup base you want while it boils, you can add in more water to get the right medium that you prefer (add only while it's cooking).  

Once you get to the right texture and medium, add in the mushroom seasoning to taste ( this simply is just your own preference so I can't say how much you need to put in!), just like adding SALT to anything... do it in small amount each time until you get to the taste that you want!!!! DON'T POUR a large amount in at once cuz... well you know how that goes! LOL 

  

YOU'RE DONE ... with your congee!!!!

The other part is the chicken and cabbage salad that comes on the side of this congee... you'd need....

 Gluten Sausage

 Shred them to long thin pieces like this just like you would a piece of chicken breast.... except it's cleaner and doesn't have a meaty smell ...yay! This time I've only used 3 pieces of the gluten sausage... 

 Once that's done, add in Sesame oil (1 tbsp) and mushroom seasoning (1-2 depends on you), use your hand to toss and squeez everything together so that the gluten can absorbs the seasonings.  Pick a little piece and try to taste if it's tasty enough... you can choose to add more of the mushroom seasoning... no need to add more oil. Set aside ... =0)

 

Then you'd need white cabbage, slice them as thin as possible (or as thick as you can possibly enjoy chewing LOL), for this I have used 3/4 of a small cabbage.  

And the most important ingredient in a chicken salad is this "herb" called Rau Ram or "Vietnamese Coriander" and this is what the leaves would look like.  It usually comes with the stem but you'd need to separate the leaves and throw away the stems.  

Once rinsed and clean, chop them sparingly ... and add it along with the cabbage in the mixing bowl with the seasoned gluten.

 Then add in 2 limes juice, mushroom seasoning, 2 tbsp of sugar, and grind black pepper and give them a good toss.  Again... personal preference on how it taste... like it more sour? Add lime juice.  Sweeter? Sugar... etc.  But keep in mind that if you want the saltier... add ONLY mushroom seasoning, I swear by mushroom seasoning because first of all it's not as salty as salt therefore much easier to work with and easier to fix even when you go overboard, and MOST IMPORTANTLY it does not make your veggies wilt!!!! Which I think is so important when you're preparing salads because you want them to look and taste fresh! ( I made this the night before and the next day the cabbage are still crunchy and taste just as FRESH!)

So here is what you'd expect it to turns out...

AND THERE YOU GO!!! YOUR CHICKEN CONGEE IS DONE AND READY TO SERVE!!! 

 Here I topped of my congee with some chops cilantro, dried onions, and black pepper.

<3 this is my very first "recipe" post... I'm not sure of how good of a job I did in describing the process to you but I hope that it's not too confusing... if you have any questions feel free to ask me on the comment section or email me ... I'd do my best to answer.  I hope you'd enjoy it after you're done because I really did! And so does my husband! <3 

We both love the original Chicken Congee but with him being a vegetarian, I tried to be as creative as possible with our food and try to bring it back to our normal days of eating and this somewhat came pretty close.  You savvy eaters might questions why is there no onions in the salad which is in the original viet chicken congee recipe... but the answer to that is simple... my husband HATES onions so I have to minimize that to the max! 

If you don't mind onions, then you'd just slice them like the cabbage and add them in along with the cabbage!  It adds an extra punch to the taste of the salad which is wonderful!!!!! 

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND HAPPY COOKING!!!! <3

Chinese Breadsticks or Gio Chao Quay

Many of us are very familiar with this breadstick and probably eaten it all our lives... so did we! But to our surprise this little dough has a very good story behind its making.  And we learned of it in Hangzhou, China when we visited Mieu Nhac Phi or Yue Fie's Temple.  

Yue Fei (March 24, 1103 – January 27, 1142), Pengju, was a military general of the Southern Song Dynasty. He is best known for leading the defense of Southern Song against invaders from the Jurchen-ruled Jin Dynasty in northern China, before being put to death by the Southern Song government.^[2] He was granted the posthumous name of Wumu by Emperor Xiaozong in 1169, and later granted the posthumous title of Prince of E (鄂王) by Emperor Ningzong in 1211. Widely seen as a patriot and national hero in China, since after his death, Yue Fei has evolved into a standard epitome of loyalty in Chinese culture.

In 1126, several years before Yue became a general, the Jurchen-ruled Jin Dynasty invaded northern China, forcing the Song Dynasty out of its capital Kaifeng and capturing Emperor Qinzong of Song, who was sent into captivity in Manchuria. This marked the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty under Emperor Gaozong.

Yue fought a long campaign against the invading Jurchens in an effort to retake northern China. Just when he was threatening to attack and retake Kaifeng, corrupt officials advised Emperor Gaozong to recall Yue to the capital and sue for peace with the Jurchens. Fearing that a defeat at Kaifeng might cause the Jurchens to release Emperor Qinzong, threatening his claim to the throne, Emperor Gaozong followed their advice, sending 12 orders in the form of 12 gold plaques to Yue Fei, recalling him back to the capital. Knowing that a success at Kaifeng could lead to internal strife, Yue submitted to the emperor's orders and returned to the capital, where he was imprisoned and where Qin Hui would eventually arrange for him to be executed on false charges.^[10]

Shuo Yue Quanzhuan states after having Yue Fei, Yue Yun, Zhang Xian arrested under false charges, Qin Hui and his wife, Lady Wang (王氏), were sitting by the "eastern window", warming themselves by the fire, when he received a letter from the people calling for the release of Yue Fei. Qin was worried because after nearly two months of torture, he could not get Yue to admit to treason and would eventually have to let him go. However, after a servant girl brought fresh oranges into the room, Lady Wang devised a plan to execute Yue. She told Qin to slip an execution notice inside the skin of an orange and send it to the judge presiding over Yue's case. This way, Yue and his companions would be put to death before the emperor or Qin himself would have to rescind an open order of execution.^[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yue_Fei

^{People of the land were sad and angry for they had really admire the General and hated the Official and his wife for their bad deed.  One of the food stall owner who sells cakes was so upset and he just couldn't find a way to express how he felt.  As he looked around his shop and saw some left-over bread dough.  So after he pound the dough for a while and mold it into two human figures stuck together (the Official and his wife).  After that owner was still not please so he threw the dough into the frying pan to fry them until they were golden brown.  As a customer came in asking for his regular cakes, the owner said there's no cake today and he's only selling these breadsticks or you char kway meaning corrupted Offcial or Giang Than.  As words gets out people really love the breadsticks and that had carried on till today!}

^{Whether it's really true or not I'm not sure ... but it's quite interesting don't you think?} 

^{Oh!!! At Yue Fei's Temple there are kneeling statues of the couple in front of his grave and people who comes in there can freely hit them however they like... from what we have heard, they were made of stones at first but they were severely damaged by people beating them so they then got cast in iron... even as iron, the Official's head has a mended dent!}