ARTISTS COOKBOOK BY MAM
RECIPE #04
“Peanut Congee (for Starving Artists)” - Heman Chong
Current Location: Singapore
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Heman Chong is a conceptual artist from Singapore, known for works reduced to the true essence of a matter with minimalist aesthetics. This porridge is also a minimal yet heartwarming dish.

• Story behind the Dish
As the world spins out of control, I want to share with a dish that has comforted and healed me for as long as I can remember.

It is a dish I crave the most when I’m down with a fever or a flu, or when I’m completely depressed. It is a dish that the women in my family taught me to cook, and possibly the only thing that I have readily learnt from them.

This is a dish that comes in handy when you’re down on your luck and have absolutely no money; a situation that unfortunately plagues most artists.

It’s made with two extremely affordable ingredients: firstly, the cheapest rice you can buy from the supermarket, since you’re going to be boiling it down to a mush.

I prefer brown rice because it gives you a lot more fiber and complex carbs than white rice, but maybe in Asia it’s not as cheap as the cheapest (broken) white rice. Secondly, buy a big bag of raw peanuts. Similar to rice, the more you buy, the cheaper it gets.

The humble peanut has been an important source of fat, protein and fiber for many communities in Southeast Asia. It is often fried with ikan bilis, tempeh and sambal chili to form a delicious and nutritious accompaniment to rice.

Even on its own, it is always a snack that provides a certain level of comfort.

Rice is, of course, a staple in all countries across Asia. It is difficult to imagine the histories of communities across Asia without thinking about rice.

The two ingredients combined form an interesting mix of products that has a taste that is very close to the earth; a woody, grounded emotion.

When you find that you’re in deep shit, you can cook this simple dish and allow it to bring your spirits up - just a little. You can also cook a pot of this for a friend, and share it.

It keeps well for two or three days if you chill it in the fridge and heat portions of it at a time. It’s great when you are ill and you don’t have much energy to cook.

• Ingredients
1 cup of raw peanuts / 1 cup of brown rice / 6 cups of tap water

• Directions
1. Wash one cup of rice in cold water once. You want to keep most of the starch as this will thicken the congee. You can scale up the amount of the congee to whatever size you want. So ten cups of rice, ten cups of peanuts, 60 cups of water, etc.

It’s a great dish to cook if you have to feed 20 starving artists.

2. Wash the raw peanuts in cold water to remove the dirt. My grandmother skips this step as she thinks that washing the peanuts removes the taste. I am following her instruction but I know most people are slightly OCD and you would want to have ‘clean’ peanuts.

3. Place the washed rice into a suitable pot that has a lid. The lid is of utmost importance as the rice and peanuts have to cook for a long time and you don’t want all the water to evaporate.

4. For every cup of rice, add 6 cups of water. If you are really poor and you need this dish to stretch, it’s possible to add 8 cups of water to one cup of rice.

You will get congee that is much more of a soup, but according to my mother, this soupy version of congee is actually better to treat fevers and flu, since there is literally more water in it.

5. Add one cup of peanuts to one cup of rice and six cups of water. Bring this mixture to a boil and immediately turn the heat to low to simmer for 2 hours. Enjoy the smell of the peanuts and rice cooking in your kitchen.

This smell is important to nourishing your soul, along with all other processes in life. It is the journey that matters, so enjoy it. There’s no rush to get anywhere.

6. Wait. Do not stir the mixture. The more you stir the congee, the thicker it gets. My father prefers a thick congee. He sometimes even goes as far as adding an egg to thicken it.

There’s no right or wrong. It’s up to your own preference. Stir for a thicker congee (because you’re breaking up the starch off the rice and it enters the water and thickens it). I prefer a soupier congee.

7. The congee is ready when the peanuts are soft, and the rice is fat and fluffy. Serve in a bowl. Eat it slowly. Savor its simplicity.

Think about everything that requires very little in life that gives a lot of pleasure. Be positive. Share this congee with the people you love.

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