Zosui - Porridge / Congee

ZOHSUI / OJIYA (aka congee, aka porridge but with a Japanese twist)

1 CUP RICE
6 CUPS WATER
2 TBSP DASHI STOCK
MISO PASTE (optional I substitute with instant miso soup packet)
KATSUO (bonito flake for the main stock and for topping)
1 SHEET WAKAME (I substitute with nori - toasted seaweed)
PEPPER

OPTIONAL
CRAB MEAT / IMITATION CRAB MEAT / FISH CAKE (anything)
CHOPPED SPRING ONION (negi)
CUBE TOFU
EGG

Put the rice and water into a stockpot to boil, when the rice is cooked and softer than normal, add all the ingredients and stir. Cook on low heat until the water is absorbed, some people prefer it more soupy, that is ok too. If you have extra optional ingredients, toss them in now, make sure the egg is fully cooked by mixing and stirring it into the zohsui. Top with chives, spring onion seaweed pieces, katsuo, toasted sesame seeds anything you wish.

According to Maki's article about this particular dish, zohsui is a temple food. However, there are others who believe that zohsui also is most beneficial eaten when you are ill. For sick people and I believe this because right now I am feeling under the weather, it is an easy dish to make and toss everything in, it is also fast to prepare and cook!

All the ingredients that you really need are just what you think will be healthy for you. I chose egg for protein and strength, tofu pieces, seaweed because I need more iron. It looks a little gross on the picture, and it smelled weird to me, but when I tasted it ... WOW ... it is one of the more delicious things I have ever eaten. And perfect for me because it is so soft and easy to eat, especially when I am having a sore throat. This is definitely a dish I am making for my children when they are ill.

As for the Chinese side of it, my grandma used to make it for me all the time when I got sick. Rice, water and chicken wings, or sometimes omit the chicken completely. I would eat it with salt, salted egg, or Bovril. Then I recall once that there was too much "soupiness" in the porridge, so I started scooping out the water and tossing it at which my grandma reprimanded me and told me a story which I vaguely remember, it went something like this:

Two sisters who were quite poor, one was quite picky about her food and always got the best choice of everything. When the villagers made them some porridge, the picky one decided she only wanted the rice part of the porridge and so left all the water part only for her other sister. Then when the other sister got home, she was dismayed, but ate the water part anyway. This kept going on everytime there was porridge for dinner, and the other sister would only eat the water part until one day the picky sister asked her why she looked still so hale and hearty. The other sister replied that the rice water retained all the goodness and the best parts of the porridge and it kept her alive as much as the rice part.

Ha ha, yes old wives tale that my grandma probably made up to make me not waste the food. It worked though, and I have always liked both sticky or soupy porridge. I miss her very, very, very much. In my life, I have never ever doubted her, and I know she has never lied to me at all. Which is why it is such a hard pill to take that she has gone on. She was my island of sanity and the only person I could ever have talked to and confided in. Most of my memories have always consisted of her being in them, that is probably why I have such a hard time letting go.

*sigh* I will tell my son about her. She would have loved him immensely.