The Gruel Manifesto: How to Love Plain Rice Gruel

[00:00] So I think when I say the word gruel, for a lot of  you your mind's going to be jumping to something   like… “you're serving us gruel?!?”. That is, it's  slop, pig feed, poor people food… the mush that  

[00:12] you'd get at the orphanage, the workhouse,  but the association above all, I think, is   with the premodern. And maybe in fairness, I mean,  gruel it definitely is an old, old food: I mean,  

[00:26] by some measures it's the original food. What  it is definitionally is some sort of simmered   cereal grain in with water - it is so simple that  it probably predated agriculture. Now gruel, it  

[00:39] should be said, is similar to but different from  a porridge: a gruel is liquid and it's drinkable   and porridge? I mean, we still have porridge  for breakfast. But gruel, in the west I think,  

[00:52] I think it's fair to say that it's starting to get  to be a bit of an endangered species. But like,   is that actually a culinary loss? Now, by the end  of this video, I'm going to leave that up to you.  

[01:04] But over here in China, at least, if you're  familiar with Chinese food, you probably know   about rice porridge, aka congee, aka Juk, aka  Zhou. Now, we've covered Cantonese congee on  

[01:16] this channel before, but from there, if you kind  of move up the coast north a little bit to the   greater Min area of Fujian and Chaozhou, you can  find something that's a little bit interesting.  

[01:28] There, their staple is something called Xifan  or Mue, and it looks a lot like a congee, but   it's a lot thinner. And it's unseasoned. And it's  drinkable. What you're looking at is a rice gruel.  

[01:47] Now, I should probably warn you guys that this  stuff, it uh it really is quite bland. I mean,   there's a reason why travelers to China usually  don't come back home raving about the unseasoned  

[02:00] rice gruel of Fujian and Chaozhou. And for the  longest time, I didn't really get it either.   But trust me that this stuff, it is actually  genius. And these days, it's one of my go-to   ways of eating rice. So now the way to think about  this is that in that region, this is traditionally  

[02:19] their equivalent of a bowl of white rice,  the staple starch that you'll have next   to your meal practically every single day.  Now, you can find that kind of practice in   pockets around the country. But for me, living  practically my entire adult life in Guangdong,  

[02:36] it's most synonymous with here, the  city of Chaozhou, where it's called mue.   So what you'll do in Chaozhou is you'll  serve your mue alongside some salty/umami  

[02:48] snacks and dishes... and you could kind of almost  think of the plain gruel as a pallette cleanser.   So like you've got something like this. These are  ganlan or Chinese olives, and they're actually a   pretty intense ingredient. But what you can do is  you can eat them next to and interspersed with the  

[03:04] mue: ditto with stuff like preserved daikon, fried  peanuts, salty omelets, fish cooked in seawater   (very traditionally)… stuff that is a little  strong, a little salty and these days in Chaozhou,  

[03:18] they'll even have these entire banquet concepts  that are centered around that simple idea. So   that's the context. But even then, for most of my  years here in China, it never really clicked. Like  

[03:30] I still loved Chaozhou food. I mean, their Loshui  Master Stock is probably my personal favorite   variant, and we do still need to really, really  cover their Guorou. But this specific aspect of   it, it was never really my thing. And so it wasn't  until the first year that we lived down in Bangkok  

[03:48] in the depths of my very first hot season that the  puzzle pieces finally started to come together.   Because this stuff in hot, muggy weather,  this is the most comfortable side starch  

[04:00] that you can possibly have. Now, before I get  into why, I suppose I should back up and explain   real quick why there is unseasoned Chaozhou  style rice gruel in Bangkok of all places. So,  

[04:17] simply put, Chazhou is to Thailand what Sicily  or Naples is to New York City. Immigrants from   Chaozhou really helped forge what we know of today  as Bangkok. So, if you went to Bangkok's Chinatown  

[04:31] and you got some Thai Chinese food, what you'd be  greeted by is stuff that is pretty much old school   Chaozhou dishes or localized Chaozhou dishes, that  kind of thing. But then even outside of Chinatown,  

[04:44] there's a lot of restaurants in Bangkok that  are run by Chaozhou descendants and they can   serve up a real mix. So you might be able  to find some olive pork that wouldn't be   too too out of place in Chaozhou next to some  Thai Chinese stuff like Chinese sausage yam,  

[05:00] all together with things that might be a lot more  synonymous with central Thailand like Tom Kha Kai   or deep fried shrimp cakes. And at a lot of  these restaurants, they'll also have mue or   as it's called in Thai, called them Khao Tom Kui.  And so it's here at this patio at our neighborhood  

[05:19] restaurant in Dindang called Jae Lek that I was  eating a central Thai wing bean salad...and mue   finally clicked for me. So how to explain this  first? Often the mue it's served room temperature.  

[05:34] So on a hot day, it's just really nice  and hydrating, but also importantly,   like we were talking about before, it also really  helps balance a meal that has strong flavors.   And like I don't know about you, but when it  is muggy as hell, when I'm sweating bullets,  

[05:49] it's often not all that comfortable to really load  up on rich dishes or salty dishes or spicy dishes.   But the plain me kind of punctuates those  flavors, clears the mouth, lets you go on fresh.  

[06:03] Now, you'll definitely need to try this  yourself, but I just think it's really nice   in the context of a hot summer meal. And so, given  that we have a super El Nino barreling down on us,  

[06:16] and given that this summer is hot, and given that  nevertheless it is going to be the coldest summer   for the rest of your life, I do think it's  time to teach you the genius of Mue. So,  

[06:30] mue together with how to assemble the  pickle spread as you'd see it in Chaozhou.   Then, we'll show you a basic preserved daikon  omelette and a Chaozhou style fried vegetable  

[06:44] so that you can make a full proper mue meal just  like you'd see it in Chaozhou. But then lastly,   I also wanted to do something a little bit  weird. Because that wing bean salad was such an  

[06:56] important dish for me in my mue journey, I really  wanted to show you that one too. Now, years ago,   uh, we asked Jae Lek how they made theirs, and  they invited us back into the kitchen. We got some  

[07:09] basic cell phone footage that I've been sitting on  for a while... and I do really like the thing with   Mue. Now, I should say that in an actual Thai  context, I think most people would point to   dishes like omelets or the aforementioned olive  pork to go along with their Khao Tom Kui. So,  

[07:26] this is a little bit me out on my own limb,  but if you're still iffy on this whole   unseasoned rice gruel concept, definitely try  it with a mix of Chaozhou and Bangkok flavors,  

[07:39] preferably in the dead heat of summer, because  that is really what it ended up converting me.   So, to make our mue then first, let's talk rice.  So, for a nice and milky mue, what you're going to  

[07:52] want is some sort of starchier short grain rice.  Today we're using the rice from the northeast of   China, which is probably the most common move  in Chaozhou today, of which Japanese style rice   would be an extremely close match. Now, down  in Thailand, they'll obviously use their Thai  

[08:09] jasmine rice, so to split the difference  starch-wise, often they'll add a little   bit of sticky rice into their mix, and you could  totally do that too if you wanted. So, then just   wash your rice. This was 80g worth for two people.  Then bring 1.6 L. that is 20 parts water to a boil  

[08:27] and then toss that in together with a spoon. Now,  I should say that the spoon thing, it's kind of   a little bit more of a Cantonese thing than a  Chaozhou thing. So, you could definitely consider   optional, but there's a pretty cool reason for the  trick. And that's because in Chaozhou, they often  

[08:44] really really emphasize stirring the rice as it's  cooking. What'll happen is that when stirring,   the very exterior of the rice is going to slightly  break down a touch and leave you with a milkier  

[08:57] end result. We've even seen one dude that  insists on 365 stirs. But with the spoon,   what's going to happen is that it'll kind of  jiggle around when it's boiling and then it'll  

[09:09] functionally sort of jostle the rice for you. Now,  we'll still need to stir it a bit, but definitely   not 365 times. So then let it come up to a heavy  simmer. But definitely do remember to leave a big  

[09:23] crack on the lid. Gruels, congees like this are  infamous for overflowing into a kitchen disaster.   And again, you are still going to need to stir  this thing occasionally, maybe once every 4 to 5  

[09:36] minutes or so. But no matter what, do not leave  the room. Watch that thing like a hawk to make   sure that it's not overflowing. If you do see it  overflowing, don't panic. Just kind of open it up,  

[09:48] stir it vigorously, put it back down. But no  matter what, let that simmer for 20 minutes in   all. Then heat off. And then you've got two  ways that you can eat this. First, if it is  

[10:00] winter and you do want something hot,  you can eat the thing straight away.   But if it's summer, again, it can be a really nice  idea to let that thing cool down. So, what you can   do when you're cooking is make your mue first,  then you can set that aside, let it cool down  

[10:15] while you're making everything else. Now, to  eat this, we did make a couple dishes today,   but I did want to talk about the pickles first.  So, this was our spread. Here we've got some  

[10:27] fried peanuts, which I know aren't exactly a  pickle, but they are pretty classic here. Then,   we have the aforementioned Chinese olive, which is  a pickle. And while they're not actually related,  

[10:39] I do think that some nice briny western olives  would also be really nice in this context, too.   Then there's this stuff, ganlancai, which is an  awesome ingredient - definitely my favorite of  

[10:52] the spread. What it is is some preserved mustard  greens cooked together with that Chinese olive   and then jarred up. I really suggest this  one. Then we have some preserved radish,   caipu as it's called in Chaozhou. This guy, it was  fried in with a little bit of lard and seasoned  

[11:09] with some sugar - recipe for that is down in the  description box if you want it. Then we'll also   have some furu fermented bean curd and of course a  couple of salted eggs. Now, there's a couple ways  

[11:21] that you can do this. I've seen some people just  kind of load stuff up into their bowl, but for me   personally, I kind of like avoiding mue pollution.  So, the way I was taught to avoid it was this.  

[11:33] First you have your olive vegetable in one hand.  Then you'll immediately (ish) gulp the mue. So… Now that kind of one two punch I'll usually just  do with the pickles. With proper dishes I'll just  

[11:50] kind of eat them a little bit more relaxed and  normally… and so speaking of which, let's show   you this omelette. So this guy, Caipu Jiandan,  it's probably one of the most classic home cooking  

[12:02] dishes in Chaozhou because most people sort  of like the world over, they'll have some eggs   lying around their kitchen. But in Chaozhou,  they'll practically equally also have some Caipu,  

[12:14] so it's pretty straightforward to just smash the  two together. So to make it, first just mince 20g   of your preserved radish together with one clove  of garlic. Set those aside. And then to a hot wok,  

[12:26] toss in a half tablespoon of lard and give it  a good swirl. Fry your garlic over medium until   it's fragrant, about 15 seconds. Then toss in the  caipu. Then fry that all together until the caipu  

[12:38] is toasted with some light brown bits. And set  that aside to cool down. Then crack four eggs to a   bowl. And then to that, toss in an eighth teaspoon  each MSG and white pepper. Whisk that super well,  

[12:52] really beating the snot out of it. until no stray  strands of egg white remain. Then mix in the fried   caipu and garlic mixture… and now we can make an  omelette. So to a hot wok, swirl in a tablespoon  

[13:05] half of lard and give that a good swirl to get a  nice non-stick surface. Then flame on medium high   now, pour in your thoroughly whisked egg. Then  begin to give it all a bit of a scramble. Once  

[13:17] it's about 80% set strings, give or take, evenly  spread the thing out and let it fry. If you're on   a round bottom wok like us periodically turn it to  make sure that everything is cooking evenly, then  

[13:32] once it's no longer runny, about 3 to 4 minutes,  flip. Let the other side brown for about 2 minutes   or so for the sake of good-looking... then  out and garnish with a little bit of cilantro.  

[13:47] Then for a vegetable, for me at least, I'd  consider the two most classic vegetables   to go along with a Chaozhou Mue to be first,  maye or hemp leaves [jute, actually], then   second fanshuye or sweet potato leaves. Neither  of which are available where we live in Yunnan,  

[14:05] unfortunately. So instead, we're going  to be using water spinach, aka Ong Choy.   Now, if you haven't worked with Ong Choy before, a  little bit like asparagus, they kind of have these   fibrous ends. So, just like asparagus, find  the point where the fibrousness begins,  

[14:22] snap it there, and then you can discard that or  alternatively save it for stews and other dishes.   Then take the remainder and then snap them  into two inch sections and set them aside. Now,  

[14:36] Ong Choy, it loves to hide a whole bunch of  little dirt and schmutz inside of it. So,   do really make sure to do a bang-up  job washing that and then let it drain.  

[14:48] Then the flavor profile for this vegetable, it  really is dead simple. It leans on this stuff,   puning doujiang, and not really all that much  else. Now, this bottle, it should be available  

[15:02] at most Chinese supermarkets, but you might see it  under the name Dao Jiew or Taucho, which is what   it's called in and around Southeast Asia. What it  is is a sort of lightly fermented soybean sauce…   and we'll be using 2 tbsp worth to fry our  vegetable. Now, to do so, to a hot wok, just  

[15:19] swirl in two tbsp of lard. And over a medium low  flame, fry two cloves worth of minced garlic until   it's fragrant, about 30 seconds. Then add in the  doujiang and fry those together for about a minute  

[15:31] to sort of make a sauce of those two things. Then  up the flame to high and add in the vegetable.   Mix and fry to let that wilt about 1 minute  or so. Then sprinkle in a teaspoon of sugar.  

[15:43] Mix and then fry that for another 30 seconds.  Then an 1/8 teaspoon of MSG and a final mix.   And then with that, you've got yourself a Chaozhou  style stir-fried veg… perfect to down some mue.  

[15:59] Then last up, wingbean salad. Now, this dish is  an expat favorite in Thailand, and I think with   one bite, you'll definitely see why. The thing, it  just tastes like Bangkok. But we should probably  

[16:11] talk about sourcing first because I'm sure you  might be a little bit curious about the titular   wingbean. Now, wingbeans, they are bean. They also  look pretty cool and they importantly have this  

[16:24] really nice satisfying snap to them. They are a  tropical plant, so you're probably not going to   be able to find these. If you can find them in a  Southeast Asian supermarket or something, that's   awesome. But if not, the always excellent Pailin  recommends substituting them with green beans.  

[16:42] Now, I definitely don't want to go toe-to-toe  with Pailin. She has undeniably forgotten more   about Thai cuisines than I've ever learned. But  for me at least, I just think that green beans,  

[16:55] they kind of lack that snap of the wing bean. So  instead, our substitute was going to be something   a little bit more speculative. We tried celery  - personally, I think it does really work here,  

[17:11] and if you want a full recipe for that one, that's  also down in the description if you want it.   But besides the wingbean, the other important  sourcing bit is going to be this guy. Nam   Phrik Phao aka Thai chili paste. Now, this one,  there's no way around it. It's absolutely critical  

[17:30] for this flavor - this and evaporated milk is  going to be the foundation of our profile here.   It is pretty widely available online, though. So  no matter what, just beg borrow steel your way  

[17:43] to 45 grams worth and then set that aside. Then  for the wingbean, the only thing to really worry   about is the string. Sometimes on the older  beans, you can get a little bit of a string,  

[17:58] like a string bean. So if you can find one,  just pull it away and set it aside. But then   just slice 150g of the bean on a bias into about  1 cm sections. Then we'll quickly blanch those in  

[18:11] boiling water for about 20 seconds. Then remove,  shock, with cool water and then drain. Then also   boil 60g of minced pork in the same water until  it's cooked through and also let that one drain.  

[18:25] Then for the final mix to a large bowl just  toss in your Nam Phrik Phao Thai chili paste,   5g of granulated sugar and 2g of MSG. 10g worth  of a solid fish sauce, another 10 grams or about  

[18:39] two-thirds of a lime's worth of lime juice. Mix,  mix, mix… then toss in one sliced spicy chili,   a quarter of a small onion, also sliced, the pork,  the beans, and I almost forgot my evaporated milk,  

[18:52] 20g worth, and then mix that super well. And for  the full Bangkok restaurant effect, just like Jae   Lek, we'll garnish our plate with a bit of sliced  cabbage and carrot. Then, toss on our salad.  

[19:06] Nestle in a sliced boiled egg, preferably with  a yolk on the gooey-er side. And then with that,   the Thai wing bean salad is also good to go. So,  uh, mue or white mue has another very classic  

[19:22] variation around the Chashan area, which is with  sweet potato. Where it came from, it was during   the time where rice is very rare and you cannot  even afford to use uh rice to make a thin gruel.  

[19:35] And what you will do is that you will grab some  sweet potato and mince it very small and boil   it together with a little bit of rice and it will  end up having a similar consistency with the gruel  

[19:47] that also fills you up. So right, check out the  recipe in description box. A big thank you for   everyone that's supporting us on Patreon and of  course subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos.