Pork Rice Porridge - Joke Moo Sub โจ๊กหมูสับ

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Pork Rice Porridge is such a comfort food in Thailand that serves well as breakfast or late night snack. It's filling but easy to digest since it's mostly water. The sick loves a bowl of hot porridge as well.

When the Thais travel, they often pack instant rice porridge anticipating the unavailability of the food that they like. Instant rice porridge is handy, just add hot water which is usually available at most hotels.

Rice porridge is an easy dish to make. You can make it from left over rice (great way to modify left over!) or start from uncooked rice.

My tradition of eating rice porridge is rushing to eat all the crispy fried noodles before they turn soggy from the steam. The crunchiness of the noodles is almost as satisfying as the warm bowl of porridge with runny yolk. The julienne ginger brings extra heat to the tummy. Ahh...a warm bowl of rice porridge...a perfect comfort food.

2 Servings, Prep Time: 1 Hours, Total Time: 1 Hours

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1-2 cilantro roots
1 cup cooked rice
fried garlic
1 green onion
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1 cup ground pork
1 teaspoon salt
3 cloves garlic
1-2 eggs Optional
handful Rice Vermicelli Optional
2-3 tablespoons cooking oil Optional

Tips and Techniques

If you are making rice porridge from uncooked rice, please note that the measuring cup that comes with the rice cooker may or may not be the standard measuring 'cup'. I found mine to be smaller than the regular 'cup'.
Substitute cilantro for cilantro roots.
Long simmering of the broth will bring out the flavor. I usually let it cook for an hour.
If you have pork bones, add them to the soup. The bones bring a lot of flavor to the soup and make it richer.
Rice porridge is a very flexible recipe where you can add more rice or more broth depending on your preference. You may also like it very mild or a little salty. Season the porridge the way you like it. I love extra ginger on mine.
If you have ground white pepper handy, this is the dish that can use a lot of ground white pepper.

Method

Cooking:

Boil 7 cups of water in a large pot. Mix the ground pork with minced garlic, chopped cilantro roots, ground pepper and salt. Wet your fingers and form a ball of the mixture, about 1 inch in diameter or bite size (picture 2). The wet fingers will prevent ground pork from sticking to your fingers.

When the water is boiling, drop the pork balls in the pot. Keep the soup simmering not boiling (picture 3). You can keep this simmering on the back burner for at least half an hour. The cooked meat balls will float. You want to continue to simmer the soup to tenderize the meat ball and bring out the flavor. If the soup is reduced, add more water to bring back to the same level.

While waiting for the pork balls and soup to develop flavor, peel, thinly slice and julienne ginger. Chop green onion and cilantro.

Traditionally, the rice porridge is cooked over several days to soften the rice. The first day, I’d let it boil and turn off the heat. The next day, I’d heat it up. At this point it will get very thick. Stir often to release the rice from the bottom of the pot. I’d do the same thing until the rice has complete disintegrated and turned to porridge.

However, it is a lot faster using a modern kitchen tool. Take the cooked rice and some broth (only broth, no pork balls), blend them in the food processor (picture 6). Pour the mixture back and let it boil. The porridge may seem very thin at this point. Let the porridge simmer for 10 -15 minutes, it will get thicker. Stir often to prevent bottom burning.

The thickness of the porridge depends on your personal preference. If you prefer very thick porridge, add 1 ½ cups of cooked rice instead of 1 cup. If you like thinner porridge, add more water. Porridge gets thicker over time. When I make a big pot and have leftover, I always have to add more water the next day to loosen the porridge from the pot.

Taste the porridge and see if you might want to add more salt.

Egg Options:

With egg: Another option to rice porridge is adding an egg. If you do, crack an egg into the boiling porridge (picture 8). Allow an egg per person. Let it sit in the porridge for a few minutes, depending on how you like your egg cooked. I like my yolk runny, just 4 minutes would do it for me.

Without egg: you are ready to serve your porridge! Let’s garnish it.

Garnish and condiments

If you choose to add fried vermicelli rice noodles (picture 9), heat up your pan/wok. Add a small amount of oil, 2-3 tablespoons. Keep the heat on high. Drop a clump of broken vermicelli rice noodles in the hot oil. The noodles will puff up immediate (if you oil is hot enough). Flip the noodles and push any strands that have not puffed yet. Drain and set aside. More tips on frying the noodles.

When you are ready to serve, ladle the porridge into an individual bowl with the egg. Garnish with fried garlic, sliced green onion and cilantro, julienne ginger and fried noodles. Sprinkle lots of white ground pepper.

Many Thai people season their porridge like their noodles. At the porridge stand, you can get sugar, fish sauce, ground chili pepper and chili in vinegar.