slow-cooker jook

november has befallen us, and with it, the scourge of the season - the icky cold. i felt miserable yesterday and made myself a big honkin' crock pot full of jook (gruel, as K calls it).

i actually didn't start to like jook (aka congee, aka "jewk" as biff [a jew!!] calls it) until very recently, in the last 5 years. i discovered its glories on a trip to hong kong in 2008 at the breakfast buffet of the salisbury YMCA hong kong (our preferred place of residence in hong kong). it was laid out with all the toppings alongside - i never even knew you could put soy sauce in it! my parents always make it very sparsely. i went crazy with cilantro and green onions (what do i always say about MAXIMUM ASIAN FLAVOR) and have never looked back.

i've made jook at home a handful of times, and i'm still not quite convinced that the time/effort put into it is worth it, considering you can get this meal for less than $5 usually (my favorite place is hing lung on broadway near stockton in chinatown). the other thing is that i LOVE to eat jook with the oily bread, and it's hard to find good oily bread around the inner sunset (the white sunset, as K calls it). i almost would rather not eat jook if i don't have that deep-fried bread! i remember driving crazily up and down clement street looking for that bread one day to eat with my jook. also i usually just make it with whatever meat i have around, but i prefer to eat it with fish or ground pork. so, jury's still out on making this at home.

i based it on recipes from both the minimalist and the traverse city record-eagle's blog but there doesn't seem to be a wrong way to make it. this time i threw in some leftover roast pork and sliced chinese sausage (in addition to ginger) and topped it with cilantro, green onions, and a dash of soy sauce and sesame oil. today i'm feeling much better. still thinking bout that oily bread.

Ginger-Mint Vodka Soda

Being a bartender, I guess I should post a booze recipe. Don't worry, I'm not one of those people who considers herself to be a mixologist or any other ridiculous title (an old co-worker said he's a drink monkey, haha). I don't intend to be a career bartender and feel like an ass when friends ask me to bartend at informal events because the drinks — usually just simple two- or three-ingredient cocktails — don't require any special knowledge. I guess some people get nervous about proportions, but they're just to what your preferences are. However, of course I am always happy to bartend for friends. I do enjoy it and like being helpful (well, sometimes, anyway).

That being said, one of my favorite cocktails is the vodka soda — decent vodka, soda water and a squeeze of lime. I love this recipe because it's the basis for so many tasty, refreshing cocktails and doesn't have an excess amount of sugar that will add to your potential hangover the next day. I think a lot of people think you need sweet mixers or a lot of ingredients to make a decent cocktail, but that's not always the case. This is especially true when using a sweet-flavored vodka. Most would think to mix it with lemon-lime soda when all you probably need is the soda water and squeeze of lime (or lemon, or whatever). Maybe a splash of something else, such as cranberry juice or sour mix, depending of the flavor of the vodka. For the recently trendy sweet tea vodka, I just use soda water and maybe a squeeze. If it's a lower-quality one (ahem, Seagram's), then a splash of sour mix, as well. Orange vodka with soda and a splash of OJ is a nice grown-up version of Orangina. So you see, the possibilities are endless.

One more bartender gripe when it comes to cocktails: tonic water is NOT the same as soda water! A surprising number of people think that tonic is soda and therefore, a diet-friendly mixer. SO not the case. Tonic water basically has as much sugar in it as cola does (there are diet versions of tonic water, as well). And the distinctive taste of it is mostly due to quinine. I'm not hating on tonic water. It actually has medicinal qualities to it and glows under black light! I just want to make sure that alcohol imbibers know what they're drinking. So anyway...

I so happened to have a small bottle of PacifiKool's Hawaiian Ginger syrup (aaahhhh, so good!), as well as some fresh herbs from my Vietnamese cooking kick (more in future posts). So I threw together this simple, delicious cocktail. As usual, proportions are up to you!

Ginger Mint Vodka Soda

1.25 ounces of decent vodka (I'm a fan of 42 Below, but at the grocery store nearest to me, Ketel One on sale will do)

1.25 ounces of PacifiKool's Hawaiian Ginger syrup

mint leaves (perhaps a palmful)

lime wedge

soda water

ice

Ideally, you should muddle the mint, but I have neither a muddler nor the patience for that right now. So I just crushed and rolled the leaves around in my hands. I'm sure I lost some of the essence to my palms, but it was fine for my personal cocktail at home.

Put everything together in a glass, stir and sip (or chug) away at any time of day. You can leave out the vodka if you're not that hardcore(!).