Last week I made the Mushroom and Spring Vegetable Congee recipe from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Kenji states that this is a risotto-inspired congee.

The recipe calls for a lot of mushrooms: one and a half pounds of various fresh mushrooms plus an ounce of dried porcini or shiitake. It also calls for tarragon, which is an herb I’m aware of but had never previously purchased or used.

The dish starts with hydrating the mushrooms in hot stock, which is then saved as the liquid for the congee. The fresh mushrooms are stir-fried until browned, and then the aromatics and hydrated dried mushrooms are added. Soy sauce, miso, and white wine then go in before finally adding the rice and stock and getting to the familiar 1-hour simmer. After that, the vegetables, cheese, and herbs are stirred in.

We opted for zucchini for the choose-your-own-adventure “spring vegetable of your choice.” Kenji notes in his congee ingredient preparation chart that zucchini should be diced and stir-fried before adding the rice and stock, so that added moved the vegetable addition to the start of the simmer and added an extra stir-fry step at the start.

The congee came out very savory and very heat-hot. Another one that might be better received in winter, but felt just ok in our warm weather. I associate mushrooms with winter dishes, so a “mushroom and spring vegetable” combo is a mental obstacle, but that could just be me.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.