Lucy Tweed’s Chicken Cauliflower Congee

Serves 6-8 – Recipe sourced from Lucy Tweed Every.Night.Of.The.Week. “This is the perfect care parcel to deliver to a friend and the perfect smell for a house on a rainy day.”

Ingredients
½ cup (25g) chopped coriander
1 whole 1.2kg chicken
2 onions peeled and quartered
3 large carrots, chopped into 3cm chunks
1 celery sticked, chopped
10cm knob ginger, roughly chopped
5cm knob of turmeric, halved
2 litres cold water (enough to generously cover the chicken)
1 tablespoon chicken stock powder
1 head of cauliflower, chunky chopped
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 ½ cups (315g) brown rice
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons mirin

Seasonings
Grated Ginger
Fresh and fried shallots
Sesame Oil Chinese
Black Vinegar Soy Sauce
Sea Salt

Method
This is low and slow. Don’t plan anything too stressful. Or, if you are stressed, make this the focus of the day – see it as a form of mediation. You can go out for an hour but then you need to return to this. This is your project today…and it will nourish you the same way the warmest and most robust hug would do. And here’s the best bit. Put all the ingredients for the congee in a stockpot and time does the rest (sort of).

Bring to a very gentle simmer. Keep the lid off. After about an hour, remove the chicken and set aside until it’s cool enough to handle.

Shred the chicken meat from the bones and set it aside until you’re ready to serve.

Crack a few larger bones and put them back in the pot for another hour, but count them first because the sump-like nature of a congee is not going to make fishing easy. I also finely shred the skin and slide that back into the brew. Stir occasionally to make sure it’s not catching. The rice will break down and the cauliflower will eventually resemble rice. If you like, you can stretch out this cathartic process for up to 3 hours.

Remove what bones you can find (or do it as you serve). If you want to clean it all up, remove the turmeric and ginger chunks too. Thinly slice the ginger and put it back in, along with the shredded chicken, and reheat before serving.

You have now reached seasoning time. Add any or all of the following; grated ginger, fresh and fried shallots, sesame oil, black vinegar, soy sauce and salt. Make it yours. Enjoy with a glass of Pfeiffer Chardonnay.

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