Chao, by Diane

 

When I'm in Vietnam, my most favorite breakfast (before pho!) is chao, aka congee or jook- there are tons of Asian cultures that eat this with different names. It is a simple rice porridge made with broken white rice, and then you can top it with various things. After making my amazing pork seaweed rolls last week in the snow, I realized I had all the toppings for chao in my house and decided to try and make it for warm savory breakfasts. While this turned out amazing flavor-wise and very comforting, the consistency was off no matter how hard I tried to adjust. It came out with soft but intact grains of rice in a thick porridge, but I was looking for rice that had broken down more. In the end it was delicious but I'll try it with white rice next time (brown was what I had on hand).

*note- I am not sure about the correct ratio here of water to rice but will update next time! I had to boil the excess liquid off for 20 min at the end which you aren't supposed to need to do.

Ingredients:

1 cup rice

6 cups water (I used 4 water and 2 beef stock)

1 tsp ground ginger

2 tbsp soy sauce

Toppings: pork floss, sliced green scallions, soy sauce, fried shallots

Directions:

Combine all ingredients but toppings and bring to a boil, lower to simmer and cook one hour or until it gets to the desired consistency (mine took almost 2 and then I boiled it for the last 20 stirring constantly to get a thick, glossy porridge that was super flavorful).

Texas Style Chili, by Diane

 

I got this recipe from Kelly's Clean Kitchen, and she has won several chili cookoff awards with it. I was interested in the roast meat vs ground beef, and it has several different ingredients in it I wanted to try. I made a few corrections in terms of liquid because the recipe called for way too much and I'm glad I did, and I know texas chili does not have lots of beans but I wound up adding in more to make this more of a meal. Unfortunately, this was just ok. I wouldn't make it again- but I will be eating it all week... 

Ingredients:

2 lb chuck roast, cut in one inch cubes

Salt and Pepper

Avocado Oil

1 white onion, diced

2 bell peppers, diced (I used one red and one green)

1 poblano pepper, diced (I blistered the skin of this)

1 jalepeno pepper, minced

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 cans fire roasted diced tomatoes

1 can kidney beans, drained (I wound up adding a can of pinto too)

1 can hatch chiles

4 cups beef stock

1 tbsp fish sauce

3 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tsp chipotle powder

2 tsp oregano

1 tbsp cumin

1 bay leaf

 1 lime, juiced (I skipped this it was already tangy and liquidy)

1/4 cup cilantro for garnish

Directions:

1. Pat beef dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. In a large pot, heat oil and brown beef on all sides, set aside.

2. Add onions, bell pepper and poblano to the pot and cook until translucent. Add salt, jalenpeno and garlic and cook 2 min.

3. Add remaining ingredients through bay leaf and return beef to the pot, bring to a boil and then simmer on low for 2 hours or until beef is tender. (it says to cook with top on but the liquid was already too much so I skipped this)

4. Stir in cilantro and serve.