Monday

Thought I'd try and make some congee/jook using some leftover steamed rice. Enjoy congee especially in colder weather. Googled some congee recipes. Seems you mainly add water, maybe stock and maybe some lettuce, or chicken or beef or thousand year old eggs (preserved eggs) to the rice depending what flavours you want. The recipes were mainly about starting from scratch with uncooked rice. But one article said it'd be a lot quicker with steamed rice.

So I added 4 cups of water to a large bowl of steamed rice in a saucepan. Kept an eye on it and added water to it periodically and an hour or so later it started looking like congee. But I didn't add enough water as the bottom of the saucepan started to burn. Anyway, I ended up with an almost congee like texture but it was a bit gooey. Tasted like very watery, mushy rice. Tried a bit and then thought I'd leave it. I think I need a slow cooker like a crock pot and leave it for 6-8 hours if I want to do it better next time.

I usually buy a tub of congee when I'm in Chinatown anyway to take home. I tend to favour recipes that take less time to cook.

After the experiment, I felt like going for a walk. We walked down King St and browsed the books at Pentimento then had some cheesecake at Cinque. It was a pleasant walk.

Watched the James Blunt interview on Enough Rope. He also performed his 'Goodbye my Lover' song. Really enjoy his music. The transcripts of that interview and that of the Australian cyclists involved in a car accident in Germany last year should be on the ABC website soon.

Worked on a feature I've been meaning to put up on CG for a while. Experimenting with some ideas to showcase a designer's work.

Also uploaded some images of 'The Bigger Picture' exhibition and a few images around Hyde Park I took on Saturday.

Congee recipe: http://chinesefood.about.com/od/breakfast/r/congee.htm

Chinese breakfast: http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa100499.htm

Enough Rope: http://www.abc.net.au/enoughrope

James Blunt: http://www.jamesblunt.com/

Photos on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaosgeneration