Happy Lunar New Year! Chinese Chicken Porridge & Trader Joe's Gingerbread Cake

Z and I are both TERRIBLE at eating lunch and I'm trying my best to premake meals or at least have enough from leftovers. We've had some party wings living in our freezer for a couple weeks and they make the best base for porridge, in my humble opinion.

One of my favorite comfort foods as a kid is Chinese Chicken Rice Porridge, aka Jook, aka Congee. Fed to young Asian kids by their mothers either as a breakfast food or when one has a stomach flu, I've managed to spread the love to Z who has an unnatural love of soups.

Chinese Chicken Rice Porridge

8 chicken wing pieces*
4 cups chicken broth
6-9 cups water
3-5 pieces fresh ginger, 1-in each
salt and white pepper to taste
2 green onions, white & light green parts chopped

*You can substitute breast pieces or boneless pieces but I feel like the bone in gives more flavor

1. Place rice in pot and cover with cold water. Swish around a few times, drain, and repeat at least 2 more times or until water is clear. Alternately, you can place the rice in a mesh strainer and rinse under cold water (I find this much less time consuming plus you lose less rice grains).

2. Place rice, chicken broth and 6 cups water in pot and bring to boil. Turn heat down to simmer. Add ginger.

*OK, at this point, I usually add the chicken and by the time the dish is done cooking, the bones and meat are almost falling apart. Most people would probably rather put in the chicken 30 minutes into cooking, pull out the chicken when it's done cooking, shred meat and then return to pot. It's totally up to you. I'm Chinese so I like the whole shebang.

3. Let simmer for about 75-90 minutes. Cooking time depends on how creamy, watery, or thick you prefer. With about 20 minutes to go, I add another 2 cups of water to continue letting the rice break down and thin it out. Stir in green onions.

4. Season with salt and white pepper. Because it's a large pot and I have a salty palette, I tend to add at least half a tablespoon. You can also stir in soy sauce in single servings if you want to add less salt into the pot. It's a rice porridge so it can be taken as a little bit on the bland side which is why it's such good sick food :)

In the beginning... in my beloved Le Creuset Round Dutch Oven

Finishing up, this is about the 70 minute mark

Chinese Chicken Rice Porridge

So we've been cooking some recipes sporadically from Real Simple's Month of Easy Dinners. There have been hits & misses (I'll post my take in a couple weeks) and tonight's was pretty much a miss: Pan-Roasted Cod and Fennel with Spinach Couscous

Lonely cod with fennel and onion

You're like, yo, where's the spinach couscous? The answer is that I suck at cooking couscous from the bulk bin. For some reason I can do the ones that come out of the box, which really isn't different. WTF. I managed to get some onto the plate at the end of the meal but let's be honest: it sucked. Also, the cod lacked seasoning (I added way more salt, pepper, and coriander) and the fish itself is just bland. Surprisingly, I liked the fennel and red onion, had lots of flavor and definitely brought the cod to a different level when eaten together. However, wasn't one of my faves, which is why I'm not taking the time type out the recipe.

Trader Joe's Gingerbread Cake

I'm not below baking mixes from a box even though I much prefer to make things from scratch. The problem being that there aren't enough hours in the day and sometimes I just want some damn cake.

Follow directions on box. I baked the cake at 25 minutes which was perfectly moist and had more flavor than most boxed cakes. Good work, TJs. The only change I made was to add 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon to the batter. The cake wasn't too sweet which is perfect for me.

To do it up a little, I melted some Trader Joe's Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce and topped the cake, letting it pool on the sides, and sifted some powdered sugar on top. Then I made some whipped cream and sprinkled Penzey's Cinnamon Sugar on top. Delightful!

For the longest time I had no idea how to make my own whipped cream even though it's the easiest thing in the world.

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla (use less if you'd like)

Combine all ingredients then whip with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. For best results, use a cold metal bowl and chill beaters for 15 minutes beforehand.

P.S. If you don't have one of these for your oven, I greatly suggest it as it showed my oven is 75 degrees off