Congee in the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker

Ingredients

• 1 TB lard or fat of choice
• 3 ribs celery, sliced thin
• 1 small turnip, peeled and diced
• 2-3 radishes, diced
• 1 large shallot or small onion, diced
• 1 pound of ground chicken or ground pork. May also use shredded cooked chicken or pork.
• 6-10 cups homemade bone broth – any variety (I prefer chicken)
• 1/2 to 1 TB coarse unrefined salt (if your broth is salted, use less)
• 1 to 1-1/2 cups short grain rice, rinsed until water is clear
• 1-2 TB grated fresh ginger
• 2-4 cups shredded cabbage
• green onions to garnish
• optional: fish sauce and/or coconut aminos to taste

Instructions

1. Begin by rinsing your rice until the water runs clear.
2. Press the saute button on the Instant Pot and then the “more” button. Melt the fat in the pot and add the aromatics. Cook about 3 min, until soft and fragrant. Turn off the Instant Pot.
3. Add the ground chicken or pork, salt, ginger, and the rinsed rice and stir to combine with the aromatics. Pour in broth.
4. Attach the lid, close the vent, and press the “porridge” button on the Instant Pot. It will take about 1 hour for it to pressurize, cook, and depressurize.
5. Stir the cooked congee and break up any large chunks of meat that cooked together. Stir in the shredded cabbage – it will wilt down and cook enough from the residual heat in the pot. Serve with a garnish of green onion slices and a splash of coconut aminos and/or fish sauce to taste.
6. Keeps well in the fridge for up to 5 days. Reheat in a 350F oven or in a pot on the stovetop.

NOTES

1. For the broth – yes, that is a wide range for the broth! Use less for a thick, rich congee and more for a watery, soupy dish. I personally prefer a ratio of about 8 cups water to 1 and 1/2 cups rice.
2. For the meat – I have tried browning the meat in a separate pan, then adding it to the rice; browning the meat in the Instant Pot insert and then adding the rice and cooking; and adding the raw meat and letting it cook with the rice. They all taste basically the same to me, and just putting the raw meat in with the uncooked rice is by far the easiest method, so that’s what I normally do.
3. NOTE – the goal here is to have about 2 cups of aromatics – you can also simply use 1 small onion and a few cloves of garlic, or a mirepoix (mix of onion, celery, carrot). I had a lot of radishes and turnips over the winter, so that is why I used this recipe.