Beef Rice Porridge for the Soul

Last week, when I had a cold that rendered me nearly useless, I made some Cháo, or Vietnamese congee or porridge. Cháo is a given when a Vietnamese kid gets sick. Another given is getting your back scraped with a spoon and some Tiger Balm until it turns scarlet red (the sight would make Child Protection Services shiver and open a whole debate about cultural relativism). But that Tiger Balm always felt great, making me sweat and giving off a tingly sensation. Then, I would be presented with a piping hot bowl of cháo to heat me up even more. After eating, I would invariably feel cool, calm and refreshed.

So I made some cháo for myself, without Mommy (after making a couple phone calls to friends asking them to feel sorry for me) and zoned out to the TV. Although, whatever palliative effects I was getting from the soup were offset by the stress in watching 24.

Cháo Bo (Beef Porridge)

In an ideal world, you would have tons of chicken broth lying around to make cháo, but if you don't it's okay (I never do). You can make up for the lack of chicken broth with fish sauce and meat drippings. 

1/8 to 1/4 pound ground beef (I like my cháo with very little meat. I've eaten it with ground lamb too which is also good, if you like a gamey flavor. If you do use lamb, use less of the meat drippings in the stock)
1 clove garlic, lightly mashed but intact
1/2 cup jasmine rice
1 tablespoon minced ginger
7 cups chicken broth (or combo of chicken broth and water, you should have at least two cups of chicken broth on hand.)
fishsauce to taste ( if you have only 2 cups of chicken broth I would use almost 2 Tablespoons fish sauce)
1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
black pepper
salt
1 chopped scallion (separate the white and green parts- you will use them at different times)
cilantro for garnish
lime (optional)

 1. Rinse the rice a few times in cold water to wash out some of the starch.
2. Put the rice in a pot along with the broth/water, the ginger, fish sauce and white part of the scallion. Bring to a boil and then lower to a mild simmer. Stir the rice. Leave on simmer for 1 hour, partially covered. Stir occasionally.
3. While the rice is boiling, heat up the sesame oil in a pan. Add the garlic clove and stir around so that it flavors all the oil. Add the meat, making sure to break up the meat into a mince. Salt and pepper the meat. Cook the meat to a medium rare. (The meat will cook more in the broth.) Throw out the garlic clove.
4. Take the drippings from the pan and pour up to 2 Tablespoons of it into the pot of boiling rice. Set the meat aside. Taste the rice soup a few minutes after you have added the meat drippings and see if you need to add more fish sauce. Add some black pepper too.
5. When the rice is just about finished boiling, pour the meat in. Serve in bowls with plenty of chopped green scallion parts, cilantro and black pepper. Squeeze with a drop of lime if you want. Serves 3.